The King of Fighters New Blood: The Arrival
by Shikkoku Kiyoshi
Summary: Four young fighters enter the KOF '99 tournament on a total whim. In a event that never goes as planned, how will a bunch of rookies fare against some of the toughest combatants in the world?
1. Drafted

Disclaimer: SNKPlaymore, KOF, and its various characters are not owned by me. The original characters, however, are owned by me and may not be used without permission.

This is my first story, and forgive me if it looks bad, I'm getting used to this uploading proccess. My name is Shikkoku Kiyoshi, and despite my newbie status, I've been going here for about a few years now. I had this idea in my head for a while, and now seemed a good time to finally get this posted.

Enjoy the story, I hope you like it.

* * *

The King of Fighters: New Blood 

Act 1: Arrival

by Shikkoku Kiyoshi

* * *

_The King of Fighters. The more people think about it, the more they realize that while the whole idea of a tournament filled with various styles of combat seems exciting, it never seems to work out in an orderly fashion. Some madman always seemed to come around, bragging how the whole tournament was a front for their evil plan, with evil laughter, and getting his evil ass kicked, only for some new madman to come around next year, bragging how the whole tournament was a front for their evil plan, with evil laughter, and etc. Yet, fighters old and new still seem to enter, despite the fact that the same team pretty much wins every year._

_So in 1999, violent fighting came again._

* * *

"WHO IN THE HELL CODED THIS SHIT?" A blonde man shouted, causing the rest of the arcade to wince. He breathed heavily, shaking the dyed black bangs out of his eyes. "Damn." He sighed. 

"Let it go, Raven." The boy behind him said, leaning against the wall with his hands behind his browned haired head. "The whole game was made rather quickly, so it's didn't get tested for bugs."

"He didn't hit me! That punch was right on him! I blocked that move, why did I take full damage?" The boy named Raven almost pulled his hair out. "Krysten, help me with this!"

The boy named Krysten moved his brother out of the way. He gave the side of the machine a hard kick, causing the game to malfunction, and instantly the ending played. Raven's mood lightened immediately.

"That's better." He rubbed the back of his head. "Now, what do we do next?"

"I wanna go eat something now." Krysten said in a voice that sounded almost like a whine.

"Fine, fine." Raven sighed made his way towards the exit, Krysten following him. "I'll get you something at the food court."

The two boys went out of the arcade and into the food court, where it was bustling as always, with most students out on summer break. The brothers had been lounging around in the arcade below, playing "Demon Fighter". It wasn't a very good game, so Raven played alone, just to see how long it took him to beat it. Obviously, it wasn't very pretty. Now, they were sitting at an area near a few TVs, which displayed news about the rumors of a new King of Fighters tournament. Obviously, this was the talk of the town lately, but it affected Raven and Krysten more than people would think.

Raven Kirishima, (or at least that what he believes his name is), and his brother Krysten were their school's top fighters, though that was impressive in of itself since the school not only wasn't very skilled at combat arts, they actually depended on the brothers to defend their status. But they were considered high level by the few people that fought them.

Lately, their classmates at their school have been questioning them about joining this year's KOF, so they could get a chance to fight with real skilled combatants, rather dumb jocks, street punks, and losers who took two classes of karate and called themselves 'black belts'. But the problem is that Raven doubted that the team he had in mind could last long in a tournament filled with bloodthirsty killers, pyromaniacs, and crazy psychics. Krysten had doubted that they had the credentials to get in. And they both had doubts that their two teammates would even want to enter. However, that didn't stop them from dreaming.

"Krysten, if we do enter this tournament, then how do you think we would do?" Raven asked, focusing on his food.

"I don't think we can win the whole thing, but I think we have the potential to last." Krysten continued to look at the TV screen. An image of Iori Yagami appeared, and the brothers cringed. They couldn't fathom the appeal of that guy, even after he rips his teammates to shreds of meat on a constant basis. AI don't want to miss out on this opportunity, but we need to figure out how we are going to get in the damn tournament first."

"Um..."

The sound of a girl's voice caused both Kirishima's to turn around. A young girl about their age was standing by their table. She wore a loose black hoodie and grey jeans her hair was a darker blond than Raven's and was seemingly dyed that color, though it looked like she only did it in random parts of her head. She had a plate of noodles from an Asian restaurant.

"Excuse me, but did you say you wanted to enter The King of Fighters 1999?" She said quietly.

The two brothers nodded. "Well, my name is Irena, and I'm a representative of the sponsor of this year's tournament."

Raven and Krysten looked at each other. It seemed a little too convenient for some girl to just appear out of nowhere, and say that she knows the sponsor. There's no way in hell that it could be that easy…

That is till she showed them her card that _confirmed _that she knew the sponsor.

"Heh...Well..." Raven smiled. "Nice to meet you, Irena. My name is Raven Kirishima and this is my brother Krysten."

"Hello..." Krysten said with a slight shyness in his voice.

"Can you really get us in the tournament?"

"I most definitely can." The young girl answered. "I've been hearing a lot about you two. You have quite the reputation around here, so I was hoping I would meet up with you."

"Well, I'm flattered." Raven turned a little red. "But I doubt that we fit the requirements."

"We don't exactly fit your idea of being a fighter." Krysten added quietly.

Irena shook her head. "I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a fighter. That's all I need. But, obviously, I would also need you to get a team together before I can register you."

"I think I can manage to gather up a few willing participants." Raven laughed inwardly.

"Alright. How about I meet you in the lakeside park tomorrow?"

"Deal. My team will be there tomorrow."

"Good. I'll see you later." Irena smiled and left the brothers to contemplate what just happened.

"Well, that's one problem solved." Raven resumed eating.

"Didn't it seem a little_ too_ easy?" Krysten asked. "One minute, were talking about entering, the next minute, some girl comes out of nowhere and says she can get us in."

"Believe me, you don't want to know how_ I_ was planning to get us entered." Raven replied, making his brother cringe, knowing what he meant probably involved gratuitous amounts of unnecessary violence. "Now that our first problem is solved, we have to break the news to our prospective teammates..."

* * *

Zyon Tohsaka Kasanari was what some would call a very good example of an enigma. 

He was very smart alright, but it made him look even smarter when you consider the fact he barely went to school on a regular basis. He spent some days wandering the town, looking at shops, eating out, and talking to girls, ect. How he even _got_ into high school is a mystery to everybody.

Nobody knew anything about his past, and he never seemed to want to talk about it. He kept to himself some days, but if confronted, will just smile and tell them he's fine.

Right now, however, he was currently lying on a bench, a lone cigarette hanging from his mouth. It was very peaceful, not a cloud in the sky except the wisps of smoke that he blew out.

The cellular phone at his side started ringing, and for a moment he considered not answering, but he figured it could be his sister, so he pressed the button.

"Hello?" He said flatly.

"Zyon, It's Raven." The voice said.

"Hey there," Zyon sat up taking the stick of tobacco from his mouth. "What's going on?"

"Well, I have a something I need to ask of you."

"I'll go get my shovel. Meet you a the usual place?" Zyon grinned. There was a brief silence on the other end before Raven sighed.

"No, idiot, this is something you might be interested in."

"In that case, I'll listen."

"Well I'm not going to tell you _now_, so come by at six and me and Krysten will enlighten you on everything. But could you ask Xion to come with you?"

"I don't know where Xio-kun is at, but I'll find him eventually. I'll see you later." Zyon hung up the phone. Taking one last drag of his cigarette, he threw it in the grass and walked off.

It didn't take him long to locate Xion's apartment building. Zyon looked up at the window on the thirty-eighth floor. It was a pretty long way up, but he wasn't concerned. Hopping around for a bit, he jumped to the side of a broken lamppost, running up it a little bit before leaping off and landing the balcony of the third floor, landing neatly on his feet.

"Visiting Xio-kun is very good training." The boy snickered before jumping from balcony to balcony (and occasionally a ledge or a telephone pole). Finally, he reached his destination, the empty balcony of Xion Shinlon.

* * *

Xion sat in his room, finishing polishing his seventeenth sword. He polished his swords about every few weeks. He had about fifty swords scattered in his apartment. The obsidian haired boy collected them for years, and he kept them in top shape by polishing, sharpening, and cleaning them regularly. It also was very relaxing for him, though now that school was out, he really wanted to get back to doing outside stuff. 

The sounds of tapping on his window made Xion put his sword away and walk to the sliding windows in his living room. Surprisingly, he wasn't startled by the grinning blond boy at the door. Opening said door, Zyon stumbled in the room.

"Hey, Xio-kun!" He gave his best friend a big smile which Xion returned.

"What brings you here?" He asked. "You usually don't bother me this time of day."

"Raven and Krysten want us to come over later. They seem to want a favor from the both of us."

"Oh shit, do they need us to pay their rent again?" The dark haired boy groaned.

"I have no idea. All I know is that we need to be there at six." Zyon went back out to the balcony.

"You're leaving already? Don't you want to stay for a while or anything?" Xion asked.

"I'm on my way to the store to get some…er…stuff, so I'll have to decline. I'll see you at the Kirishima's house. Stay out of trouble, Xio-kun." He jumped off the balcony, but when Xion looked out, he was already gone. Xion sighed, closed the door, and went back to his swords.

* * *

Xion arrived at six as specified, but Zyon was apparently late. Then he heard the sounds of snapping branches, and saw his friend descend ungracefully from a tree. 

"Ouch…Hey Xio-kun." He got up and proceeded to kick the door twice. An irritated Raven opened the door.

"What did I tell you about doing that, Zyon?" He said slowly, but let him in anyway. Xion followed suit, saluting his friend.

"Whatever." Zyon waved him off. "Where's Krysten at?"

"He's up in his room playing video games as usual." Raven picked up a book and threw it upstairs at his brother's bedroom door. Krysten came out and threw it back at him.

"You're messing up my game, damnit!" He shouted, before noticing Zyon and Xion. "Hey guys, what's up?"

Xion scratched the back of his head. ANothing much." He replied. Zyon just shrugged.

"I ordered a pizza; it's in the living room if you want it." Krysten went back into his room. "I'll be down there as soon as save my game."

Raven, Zyon and Xion went to the living room and started eating. After a few minutes, Krysten joined them (but not before smacking his brother in the back of the head for earlier).

"Okay." Raven finally spoke. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. I and Krysten have been considered for The King of Fighters tournament."

Zyon and Xion stopped eating.

"You've been considered? WOW! I can't believe you actually got in. I thought they only wanted good fighters?" Xion smacked him on the head. "Hey!"

"Ignore him," Xion glared at his friend. "What I want to know is how did you get in?"

"A girl named Irena came to us at the mall and overheard us talking about the tournament, and she said that she was a representative of the sponsor and might be able to get us in." Krysten stated, some what concerned with the unimpressed looks that they got.

"So you'll do what some cute girl asks you, even though it's most probably a scam to get personal information and stuff?" Zyon frowned. "Is 'Kirishima' Japanese for 'Gullible Idiot'?"

"Shut up." Raven sneered. "I have faith that she's telling the truth."

"Yeah, sure." Xion replied. "Some guy came up to me wearing a big hat and invited me to fight in Mortal Kombat."

"I got invited into Killer Instinct by some dork sitting next to me at school." Zyon added. They both started laughing.

"I wouldn't be laughing so hard once you heard what I have to say." Raven sighed. The other two stopped their display long enough to listen. "Who do you think I want to team up with?"

"No..." Zyon mouthed.

"You don't mean..." Xion said.

"Yep. It's you two."

There was a moment of silence.

"I understand you have doubts, but I promise you, if this turns out to be some cruel joke, I'll give you full permission to enact your revenge on her."

"Raven, you do realize that The King of Fighters is a tournament of which no other tournament can fathom comparing themselves to." Zyon said, before smiling wickedly. "I'm in."

"If Zyon's in I guess I am too." Xion shrugged. "Anything to kill my boredom."

"In that case," Raven grinned darkly. "We need to discuss some things..."

* * *

So what do you think? I'm rather pleased of how this thing went out, though your thoughts are appreciated. 

A few things. One, this new team is not going to be a bunch of overpowered kids who throw flames, have better powers than everybody else, and go through the other fighters like they were five year old girls. Only one person can use flames, and even then, it's he's not very good at it yet.

Two, I'm not very concerned with negitive reviews. I'll comment on it, but most of the time, I'll take any flames and use them to make me some hot chocolate while I continue to write. Positive reivews are always welcome, however. Great, now I got a craving for hot chocolate...

Three, this story will be updated whenever I get the chapter finished. I work quickly, but the cruel hand of real life might prevent me from updating as fast as I want. Especially once college starts again. (shudders)

And.. that's about it. As for the next chapter: The new team get registered, decide on a name, and are forced to wait a week to start fighting. The actin will start a chapter three

Until next time... (Goes to make hot chocolate.)


	2. Go! Go! Shin Sekai Chitsujo!

Disclamer: SNKPlaymore owns KOF and its various characters. Shikkoku only owns the original characters, this computer, and a old PS2 that needs to be replaced.

Shikkoku: Sorry about the last chapter if it looked a bit wacky, I had to get used to the editing and uploading process, so it looks somewhat iffy.

* * *

The King of Fighters: New Blood

Act-1: Arrival

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

* * *

The next day, Raven and Krysten sat by the lake, waiting for Irena to come with the registration information. The latter was currently feeding the many fishes that swam in the water, while the former was drawing his name on the dirt, wondering where the rest of his teammates are.

"Zyon and Xion are late." Raven sighed. "They must be hung over from last night."

"They didn't drink_ that _much..." Krysten said softly, giving the fish more food. "Though Zyon possibly brought more alcohol after he left."

"But still, if they mess this up for us, I'm going to kill them, very _slowly_."

"Then you wouldn't have much of a team, now would you?"

The brother's recognized that voice. The sponsor's representative was standing right behind them.

Irena smiled. "Hello, you two." She greeted. "I see the rest of your team isn't here yet."

"If they know what's good for them, they will be." Raven said.

About that time, Zyon appeared out of nowhere, flying about ten feet up above them, and proceeded to land not so gracefully into the picnic table behind them, which unfortunately for Zyon, _didn't_ _break_.

"Oof...Hey, everybody." He managed to choke out, getting up and brushing the splinters out of his hair.

"You're late." Krysten said, even though he didn't really mind it at all. Zyon just ignored him.

"Xio-kun should be here in a moment." He said, before noticing Irena. "Is this our girl?"

"Yep." She answered. "My name is Irena Toryu."

Zyon gave her a nice smile. "My name is Zyon Kasanari." He bowed. "It's nice to meet such a beautiful woman as yourself."

Irena blushed. "Heh, heh. Thanks."

"Please don't hit on the representative, Zyon." Xion called out as he walked over to the rest of the team. "My name is Xion Shinlon."

"Pleased to meet you all." Irena took out a clipboard. "All right, time for some information I need before I put you in the brackets. First, who would you consider the leader?"

Raven, Zyon and Xion raised their hands at the same time. They glared at each other.

"Why in the hell do you get to be the leader" Zyon asked. "Me and Xio-kun are both older than you."

"It was my idea!" Raven answered.

"But we have way more experience in this than you do." Xion added, even though he really didn't care.

Krysten kept quiet as usual, as the other three argued.

"Okay, since this is going nowhere, I say Krysten votes for the leader." Zyon said. "Now this is a tough choice for you, so I suggest you choos-"

"I pick Raven." Krysten said immediately.

"Dammit! You were supposed to think about it!" The blond boy slumped in defeat.

"Alright. What are your fighting styles?" Irena continued.

"I practice various forms of Chinese martial arts." Xion answered.

"Kasanari-ryuu Karate!" Zyon stated proudly, even though there was no such thing.

"Uh...I just made up my own style." Krysten said sheepishly.

"I am the master of a mystical fighting style." Raven smiled evilly. "I'm only one of a few that has completed the harsh training. Thousands of people have tried to master it, but most end up dying due to the intense strain on their body. Only five people are alive today that have lived long enough to complete the training, I being the latest one."

Zyon sighed. "Raven trained under his family, but the style he's referring to isn't that powerful. He just says that to look cool in front of people." Krysten nodded to confirm that fact.

"That's okay. Now how old are all of you?"

"I'm sixteen and Krysten is fifteen and seven ninths." Raven said.

"Seventeen." Zyon added.

"Ditto." Xion said

"Alright, tell me more about yourselves."

"I like school, my friends, and my older sister and brother." Raven sighed. "I haven't seen them in so long, because I'm stuck babysitting my younger brother everyday."

Krysten rolled his eyes. "I like videogames, motorbikes and collecting and studying the history of various firearms."

"I like to cook, and I want to go college to become a chef."

"That is, if he ever takes an entrance exam." Xion snickered. "You haven't even started looking for colleges, and you graduate next year."

"I'm looking! I'm not going to go as soon as school ends, but I'll go eventually."

Xion shook his head. "I like practicing with my various swords and hanging out with whomever."

Irena checked off her list. "Okay, now, all I need is you team name and I can put you in."

The team looked nervously at each other. They never thought of a team name.

"How about the Raven Team?" Said the group leader. Everyone else merely glared at him.

"I got an even better name." Zyon announced. "The New World Order! We can use weapons when we fight and spray-paint our logo on people's back! And we can wear nothing but white and black!"

Xion and Krysten sweatdropped.

"We are not naming our team that!" Raven replied. "Can't you think of something original?"

"In that case, how about we call ourselves Shin Sekai Chitsujo? It means basically the same thing, only in Japanese."

"That's horrible." Krysten interjected. "That sounds like some kind of cheesy superhero children's show. Are we supposed to dress up in bright colors and do silly poses when we fight?"

"I never thought of that, but it _could_ work..." Zyon mumbled. "We need a robot though, a big one..."

"NO!" The rest of the team interjected.

"Just stick with the name." Raven finally decided. "We'll call ourselves the SSC for short, though. It sounds less...stupid."

"Okay. Give me a minute." Irena took out a phone and walked away.

"Who do you think she's talking to?" Krysten whispered.

"I don't know. Probably the sponsor." Raven answered.

"He's probably laughing at the idea of a bunch of no name kids wanting to join the tournament." Zyon added. " I think I can here him chuckling right now."

A few minutes later, she came back.

"Alright, it's official. You are now registered to fight in the King of Fighters 1999." She gave them a big smile. "And what more, our sponsor has asked me to be your team representative."

"Representative?" The entire team said at once.

"I'll travel with you, referee your bouts, and record your progress. That way, we can determine how well you are doing."

"When did they start putting representatives with teams?" Zyon questioned.

"Well, since you guys aren't exactly experienced with big tournaments like KOF, you might need someone to help you get used to it." Irena swayed a little bit. "I don't want you to get overwhelmed by the rules and such, and end up getting DQ'ed and thrown out of the tournament."

"Alright, when do we start?" Raven asked.

"In a week." Irena answered. "I have to go and get things finalized for the rest of the tournament. I'll meet up with you later." She waved goodbye. The Shin Sekai Chitsujo stood there for a moment.

"What the fuck are we going to do for an entire week?" Zyon whined. "Train?"

"Yeah right." Raven and Krysten started to leave. "We're going to the arcade. Later."

Zyon rubbed the back of his head. "I guess you have a point. I gotta get home. Stay out of trouble, Xio-kun." He disappeared into the trees. Xion shrugged and walked back to his apartment to take a nap.

* * *

Leona had noticed something strange when going through the participants over this year's tournament. A new team had suddenly appeared in the roster. What's more, they looked like a bunch of kids (Not that it had ever stopped anyone before from entering.).

"They look normal." She thought. "But, of course, that could be pushing it. They couldn't have gotten in without having some sort of weird power."

"Ma'am?" The brown haired girl named Whip asked. "Who are those guys?"

"I have no idea." The blue-haired woman responded. "They just been added to the tournament line-up, so I guess they requested to be in this tournament."

Whip took a look at the contestants' pictures. "Wow, they're all pretty cute." She smiled. ABut they won't last a whole round with experienced fighters."

"I would like to believe that, but things never seem to make sense in this tournament." Leona sighed.

"I wonder if we can request to face them first, I want to see if they're as handsome in person." Whip walked out of the room. Leona shook her head, blowing some of the hair out of her face.

* * *

"Zyonii?"

"Yes, Tera?" Zyon addressed his sister, while lying on the roof of their school.

"How did the thing go? Was she a real representative?"

"I'm guessing she's real. I don't see anything that makes me doubt anything she said."

"So you're going to leave next week?"

"Yep."

Zyon's sister, Tera Matou Kasanari, was about a two years younger than her brother, and was pretty much a female version of him, right down to the blond hair and wacky behaviorisms.

"That is so awesome!" She answered. "I wanna go with you!"

"Sorry, but this could be dangerous." Zyon patted her head. "There's a bunch of crazy people in this tournament. I couldn't forgive myself if you got hurt. You know that, right?"

"I know." Tera said sadly.

"I'll bring you back something, maybe an autograph, a doll, or some guy's hair." Zyon lay back down on the grass. AMaybe even some money, if we win."

Tera flopped down to the ground next to her brother. "Alright."

They stared at the clouds for a few minutes when Tera remembered something.

"Do you think they'll mind us using the school while it's out for the summer?" She asked.

Zyon just yawned. "Nah."

* * *

Xion didn't exactly feel like doing anything else, so he went to his apartment and flopped on the couch. He was about to go to sleep when the door knocked. He opened it to see his friend Kanaye.

"Why aren't you at the mall or anything?" he asked.

"I should ask the same thing." Xion replied flatly.

"I'm looking for you, idiot. I saw your blond friend, and he told me what was going on." Pushing his way in, he took his spot on the couch. "What are you thinking?"

"What's wrong?"

"I don't doubt your ability, I doubt the fact that you can go up against half the people that I hear are in there."

Xion didn't seem to be fazed by his friends ranting. "You have concerns, I understand. Hell, I have tons of concerns about this."

"The whole damn school is concerned about you! You haven't had a serious fight in years. Aren't you a little rusty?"

"Maybe. But I think this will be a fun little game to play for a while."

Kanaye sighed before smiling and heading towards the door. There was no convincing him. "Just be careful. I have your back."

Xion smiled. "I appreciate it."

* * *

When the Kirishima's announced that they were entered in the tournament, their friends held a good luck party. Afterwards, they were about to leave when a girl came up to Raven.

"Uh...Raven-sempai?" She said shyly.

The young man smiled. "Yeah?"

"I made something for you today at class." She gave him a nicely designed red and black strip of cloth. AIt's for luck, so you can think of our school when you fight."

Raven took the cloth and tied it so it hung loosely around his neck. "Thanks, it's pretty sweet." He smiled... "When I get back, I'll return the favor, I promise."

"Thank you, sempai." The girl ran away.

"Bro, what do you mean exactly by returning the favor'?" Krysten said apprehensively.

"Nothing, nothing." The blonde waved his hand and walked away.

* * *

"Finally."

Irena sighed and leaned back on her chair. She had finally gotten approval for the new team from her superiors. After turning her computer off, the young spokesperson started on the long walk to her room. As she went past rows and rows of parallel doors, her mind focused on the leader of said new team. The tip that led her to Raven in the first place was a story about an underground tournament a few months ago.

Rumors said that he had entered himself into the tourney for the ample prize money. Many people had bet against him, obviously, due to his age. But after the first battle, in which he won in under a minute, people were starting to get uneasy. Some of the best amateur fighters in the area were left bloodied on the floor in a matter of minutes. Not willing to lose precious money to a nobody, the sponsor of the tournament sent in his biggest, toughest fighter to beat the young man out of his misery.

Nobody knows how he did it, but Raven's lone attack was an uppercut that landed directly under his opponent's chin. A sickening crack was heard, and the man fell down like a light pole. The crowd was silent. The sponsor didn't waste time awarding him the prize money, and Raven just left. They never had another tournament again, as most of the mainstays were too crippled to continue. Irena wondered if that story was even true as she slipped into bed. Granted, it would certainly prove that he was worthy of entering the tournament, but the details of that event was sketchy. People said that they saw something black during that final uppercut. Many of those same people were on horrific drug binges when they spoke to her, so it could be mostly random bullshit mixed with the truth.

But many people thought he was just a kid who got into spats about things that most people wouldn't concern themselves with. And what about Krysten, his brother? They say that he sometimes acted like he was a mute around people, and by what she saw, he was very shy around strangers. The other two guys on the team, Zyon and Xion, had barely any records to make any conclusions off of.

Did any of them really know any fighting styles? The Kirishima's probably didn't have one, she never even heard of Kasanari-ryuu Karate before, and Xion didn't look like someone that trains under the strict teachings of Kung-fu, unless 'various styles of Chinese Martial Arts' really meant, "I watch badly dubbed Chinese action movies, I jump around like I'm on speed, flail my arms at people, and scream really loud! WA-CHA!"

'But they wouldn't want to enter if they didn't think they could handle it.' Irena reasoned. As she slowly fell asleep, the girl hoped she made the right decision.

* * *

Raven ran his hands stared at his image at the bathroom mirror. It was the middle of the night, and his brother was asleep. But the dirty blond haired boy was starting to wonder if he did the right thing in entering this tournament.

No, he wasn't going to back out now.

His hand brushes back the hair over his left eye. Almost invisible to the naked eye, a short line ran down it, but the eye seemed virtually untouched.

"How long has it been," He said. "Since I got this mark…"

* * *

Shikkoku: (Yawns.) That was _way_ longer than it was supposed to be, probably I had to rewrite some parts due to timeline inaccuracies with the first chapters.

So now we got a team name, and the countdown is on (for them at least). Nothing much to say here, but the actual tournament starts next chapter and it's probably going to be way longer than the first two combined. That's right, I'm not going to drag it out any longer now. I have a good handle on this uploading thing, so hopefully future chapters it won't look as messy as the first chapter looked. As always, leave a review, even if it's somewhat negitive.

I'll probably upload the third chapter tomorrow or Saturday, along with my other KOF story,_ Kurai Tenshi: Keppaku._

_Notes:_

_Zyonii is not a typo, but what Tera calls her brother, a combination of 'Zyon' and 'Onii-san'._

_Shin Sekai Chitsujo New World Order.That was the original name for the team, but I figured the current name sounded way better. Krysten does have a point though about it sounding like a Sentai series...;_

Anyway, Next Chapter: The SSC arrive at their first stop in the tournament, and have their first official match. Who's the team? How bad will they beat down the SSC? Has Raven made a big mistake?

Until next time.


	3. Round 1: SSC vs Ladies Team

Shikkoku: (Bursts into room) Mai! Come quick!

Mai: Wha-? What's going on?

Shikkoku: Andy is dead!

Mai: (Devastated) WHAT?!? Andy's DEAD?

Shikkoku: That's Right! Dead serious about me not owning the King of Fighters or it's characters.

Mai: (Smacks Shikkoku with her fan.) THAT'S NOT FUNNY!

Shikkoku: OW…(Rubs head.) However, the original characters in this work of fiction do belong to me. I'll be back at the end of the story. (Ducks Fan.) But for now…(Runs away.)

Mai: Get back here! You can't run from me! (Runs after him.)

* * *

The King of Fighters: New Blood 

Act 1: Arrival

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

* * *

As inexperienced and aloof as the Shin Sekai Chitsujo were about KOF, the burden of this tournament was still on their shoulders. The short preparation time proved to be a slight problem, some of them weren't keen on any forms of strenuous training, and Raven was convinced that the team wouldn't get past the second round, but it was still The King of Fighters. There was the chance that they would return from it completely different than when they left, if they came back at all. But all of those were only_ risks_. Leaving to fight was an entirely different matter.

* * *

Xion shoved the last of his fighting clothes in his suitcase, and shoved it closed. He let out a breath and flopped on his bed. 

The plane to their first fight was leaving tomorrow.

His entire apartment was dark, except for a light by the bed he was currently lying on. The excitement he was feeling was slowly giving way to a slight anxiety. It was a weird feeling for him, he hasn't been anxious about anything for awhile now. It was going to be a rough fight.

For all he knows, he won't come back. It worried him that he was risking the life he worked so hard to have.

On the other hand, there's that part of him that wants him to return to the violence he had left behind, if at least for only a brief moment.

He removed his gloves, and a rush of power flowed through his body. His handsome face twisted into a slightly evil smile.

* * *

Why Zyon continued to come here, he did not know. 

It was a fine day out, why was he at a dreary graveyard?

"Because…" He answered his own question. "I miss her."

The blond boy went through the various tombstones, a bouquet of various flowers resting on his shoulder. He paid no mind to the other graves, as he was focused on one person in particular.

He placed the flowers in front of said person's tombstone.

"Hey." He spoke gently. "I'm going to the tournament tomorrow, so I might be gone for awhile."

There was a brief silence.

"Yeah. Me, Raven, Krysten and Xio-kun are going to the King of Fighters."

Zyon closed his eyes. "What's that? You want me to stay safe, huh?"

He opened them, eyes a duller, flatter and color than usual, laughing softly.

"I'll be fine."

* * *

"Raven?" 

"Yeah?" The blonde haired boy answered from his bed.

"Do you believe in me enough for me to be on your team?" Krysten asked, while he was playing his Game Boy.

"You're questioning your worth?" His brother let out a little laugh. "It was our idea after all."

"This was _your_ idea. I agreed to this because I knew you would eventually drag me along on this weird idea of yours."

"I'm your brother. If you wasn't worthy enough, I still would let you be a part of this." Raven turned to his brother. "I will not let anything happen to you, I promise."

"I know that." Krysten turned off the device. "I'm just very anxious. I haven't fought someone with any form of actual talent in about a year."

"Me neither, that's partly why I came up with this idea."

"You're not worried about getting your ass kicked?"

"It's to be expected, but don't count us out before we fight, little brother." The older boy turned to face the window overlooking the city streets. "We could win this thing."

Krysten didn't respond, deciding to go to sleep and ease his mind somewhat. Tomorrow was going to be something, all right.

* * *

An loud, electronic sound startled both brothers awake early the next day. It was the phone, which Raven picked up. 

"Hello?" He answered with a slight drowsy tone.

"Hello, Raven!"

"Huh? Is that you, Irena?"

"Bingo!" She said happily. "Today's the big day, so get ready! Your limo should be here in a hour to take you to the airport! I'll be there when you arrive, okay?"

"Alright." Raven was fully awake now. "We'll see you there."

"Okay. Tell Krysten I said hi. Bye you two."

"Later." Raven hung up the phone and got out of bed. Krysten however decided to go back to sleep. "It's time to get up, little brother."

"Give me five more minutes." The younger Kirishima replied. Raven sighed and got himself ready to leave. Krysten finally gathered enough energy to call Xion and tell him to call Zyon and be at their house in an hour.

* * *

Zyon got the call from Xion, quickly dressed, and got ready to leave. But before he left, Tera wanted to say goodbye. 

"Zyonii, be careful." She clutched to him tightly. "You know there are a lot of loonies participating in this tournament."

"Don't worry. We'll be eliminated long before we face anyone good." Zyon hugged her. "I love you."

"I love you too." Tera watched as her brother walked out the door. A minute later Zyon came back in. "I forgot my cigarettes."

"Nii-san! You shouldn't be smoking at a time like this!" Tera said exasperated. Zyon just smiled and went out the door again, were Xion was waiting.

"I'm glad that your made an effort to make it on time for once." He yawned, and the two started on the long walk to the Kirishima's house.

"I just hope they got breakfast for me at the house."

"We can get breakfast at the airport. I'm more worried about something else."

"What is it, Xio-kun?" Zyon asked.

"Do you think that anybody will take us seriously? I mean, we don't look like the some of the toughest fighters of the world; the others will probably think we're a bunch of teens who entered this tournament on some kind of sick bet."

"We can be just as tough as those other guys. Imagine what would happen if we won. We would be famous! Girls will be fighting for a piece of us."

"I'd bet you'd like that." Xion rolled his eyes. "I hope you never fight Mai Shiranui. That would not end well."

"That would be my dream match." Zyon eyes were sparkling. "I would love to have a bout with her, and maybe if I win, she might reward me with..."

"I don't want to hear your erotic fantasies this early in the morning, Zyon." The obsidian haired boy tapped his friend lightly in the head. Zyon just frowned and kept walking. Forty-five minutes later, they arrived at the Kirishima's house, where Raven was currently packed and ready to leave. Zyon noticed that Krysten was not there.

"Raven, where's your brother at?" He asked.

"He's in his room, playing that damn RPG of his before we leave." The older Kirishima answered with a sigh. As if on cue, his younger brother came out of the door. For some reason, he had cut his long brown hair to his shoulders and dyed the tips of it a dark red.

"What's with the hair, Krysten?" Zyon said, slightly amused with the semi makeover. Krysten rubbed the back of his neck.

"My hair could get in the way when fighting, so I cut it off, and dyed it somewhat, so I'd stand out more."

"Why not put your hair in a ponytail while your at it? Or how about a mullet? I never seen a fighter with a mullet before!" The blond boy mocked.

"Shut up, Zyon. At least I don't have to comb my hair every day like a girl." Krysten retorted. Zyon frowned and crossed his arms, opting to drop the thing before a huge fight started before they even left.

Two limos pulled up minutes later, and everybody instantly threw their belongings in the trunk and got in the cars.

The flight leading to the Shin Sekai Chitsujo's first fight of the tournament was still a few hours away, and since none of them had time to cook any form of breakfast, they had decided to waste some time eating breakfast. Krysten and Zyon had great big stacks of pancakes, while Raven had an omelet and Xion had French toast. 

"Hey Xion…" Raven asked as he watched his brother and Zyon racing to see who could finish their pancakes first.. "Are you going to be okay with fighting again, after so long?"

"I'll be fine. I can't say I'm not excited to be able to fight again." The black haired boy, who was currently into his food.

"I'll have your back, Xio-kun." Zyon smiled. "Just remember that it's just a game."

"Game?" Krysten stated. "I'm pretty sure half of these people in this tournament wouldn't hesitate killing us."

"I promise you they won't. I have met some of them before, and they're a okay bunch."

"Either way, don't get too worked up about it." Raven added. "We should have fun with this."

The announcement for the Shin Sekai Chitsujo's plane rang out, and the team paid for their meal and ran to the plane.

* * *

The entire flight was relaxing and went without trouble (though Zyon was a little jumpy since this was a no smoking flight), and they landed in another airport somewhere in a country they never heard of. The minute Zyon got out, he instantly lit up a cigarette and started to smoke. Raven, on the other hand, was looking for Irena. 

And there she was, looking at various magazines at the stand. Her hair was a dark brown this time, and with her red shirt and cargo pants, she looked very cute. As soon as she noticed the team, a smile formed on her face.

"HI GUYS!" she shouted before running to where the SSC were standing. "I'm happy to see you all again."

"Same here." Raven gave a confident grin. "Did you get everything ready for us?"

"Of course. Your first match is tomorrow, I'll give you the details as soon as we get to our hotel."

"When you say 'hotel'," Zyon asked, "do you mean a actual hotel or some run down roadside shack in the middle of nowhere, owned by some gap-toothed creepy guy, and when you're in the shower or sleeping a freak with a mask comes in your room stabs you to death, then throws the body into some gorge or off a cliff a few miles away so the police won't find them."

The rest of the team gave Zyon a weird look. Irena just giggled.

"You're too much…" She stated cheerfully. "It's a hotel. I wouldn't send my favorite team to some crappy Motel 6, would I?"

"The last time I went to a motel, I ended up getting strep throat." Xion added. "So I would rather sleep outside than go to another place like that."

"Yeah, Yeah, you can make your hotel recommendations later, let's just leave so we can find out our first opponents in this tournament." Raven said before leaving for the exit.

Outside the airport, they found that Irena had rented them a car. Since Xion was the only one who drove with a _valid_ license, he was in charge of driving them to the hotel. An hour later, they arrived at the building. Raven and Krysten literally fell out of the car, the former because he wasn't very used to sitting next to a girl for a long period of time and was ready to get out, and the latter because he was bearing most of the weight from the other two.

They got out and looked at the hotel with amazement. It was one of those five-star hotels you see on those shows that tell you how rich people live better than you do. The inside was even better looking, with gold, diamonds and all sorts of shiny stuff.

Of course, since the SSC are not rich, the other people in the building either gave them funny looks, or thought that they were the new cleaners for their room.

Irena had some issues with the people at the register. Apparently, she had trouble convincing them that they were the team that was supposed to stay there for the next few days. She managed to get the keys and asked the SSC to go to their rooms while she took of a few things. They got into the elevator, which closed just before the scream came from the cashier's table.

* * *

"This room is bigger than my entire apartment." 

Xion and Zyon had walked into their room and was instantly surprised. It was _huge_. They took the opportunity to explore the place, though Zyon was more interested in if there was anything he could take from the place.

"I'm _so_ stealing these towels when we leave here." Zyon said, hugging the soft items in his arm. "Do you see anything you want to swipe, Xio-kun?"

"I'm not planning on stealing anything from this place." Xion answered from the bedroom.

"Well, it's your loss." Zyon stated, throwing a 'no smoking' sign out the window, "Where's our teammates at?"

"On the other side that door behind you. It connects our rooms together."

Zyon opened the door, to reveal another door with no knob. Sighing, he decided to knock on the door, instead of kicking down as usual. Raven answered after a few minutes and let him in. Krysten was sprawled out on one of the beds, and they didn't seem to excited compared to him.

"What is wrong with you two?" He asked.

"I'm just anxious about our first match." Krysten droned. "But I'm mostly tired from that long plane ride."

"How come you aren't exhausted?"

"I slept on the plane, and unlike you, I didn't stay up until who knows when trying to get my character leveled up one more time before I left."

Krysten was about to drag his body out of bed and see how far Zyon's head would go into a wall, when their representative came in, mumbling something about trashing the hotel before they leave.

"Sorry about that." She said. "I'm going to have to lay low while we stay here."

"What happened down there?" Raven said.

"The cashier was making some smartass remarks about you, so I had to…uh…tell him off, so to speak." She smiled. Raven looked out the window and saw several ambulances carrying people out of the room.

"The security gets a little _too_ grabby as well, but that's not important." She got out her laptop.

"What's important is introducing you to how the tournament works. Now it's simple. The tournament is a sixteen team elimination style setup. The general KOF rules are still present: Three fighters choose an order to be active and goes against another team. You fight till your opponent is unconscious or gives up. Once one person loses, the next designated person on the team comes forward. The fights will continue till all three members of a team lose, which the other team will win the match. On the rare event that a draw occurs, both team members instantly are out. If one member is their team's last fighter, and fights to a draw, than that team loses. If both teams are on their last fighter and a draw occurs, then it will be up to me and my associates to determine a winner of the bout, as I also will be acting as an official for your fights. I am obligated by my sponsor to make sure things go fairly, so I am unable to throw matches or constantly make up rules just so you will win."

The SSC listened intently, surprisingly enough, though Xion looked like he was using all of his strength not to get up and leave from boredom, and Raven was still taking glances out the window; apparently the cops were still there.

"Anyway, this year we are introducing a new 'Striker' system. You may have noticed that teams are 4 members now, instead of the usual three. Your forth member is your Striker. During the match, if you give a signal, your Striker will come out. Now, he has only a brief period of time to help you beat down your opponent before he has to go back to the sidelines. It's a new feature that could help you out of a tough spot and get the control of the match in your favor. But just so you know, if you stay too long out, I'll ban strikers for the rest of the round, and if you just blatantly ignore me, I'll ban them for the rest of the entire match, so go easy on it, okay?"

The entire team nodded.

"Now, as for your first match," Irena typed a few things in and instantly, a graphic came up featuring the first sixteen matches. The SSC listing was somewhere in the middle. "the computer has randomly selected today's matches, and you will fight tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the local dinosaur museum, 'Dinosaur World'."

"DINOSAUR WORLD?!?" the whole team exclaimed.

"We're having our first match in a fucking _museum_?!" Zyon wasn't very pleased.

"Aren't famous tournaments usually taken place in an arena?" Xion said with his usual unconcerned voice.

Irena sighed. "I know that it's not that common a setting for a brutal, bloody, fight to the finish, but you just have to trust me." She pleaded. The team just made sounds that seemed to signify agreement. "Good. Now as I stated, your match has been randomly selected. Your first match will be…" She pressed a button, and the match screen came up.

"The Shin Sekai Chitsujo team versus The Ladies Team."

Raven and Krysten looked horrified.

"They must not think very much of us if their pitting us against a bunch of girls." The younger Kirishima said.

"Damn it." Raven cursed.

Xion yawned.

Zyon was very pleased with the match. "All right! I get to fight some cute girls! Who's on the team?"

Irena punched in a few more keys. "The women's team consists of King, Mary Ryan, Kasumi Todoh, and Li Xiangfei." She showed their pictures to the team. Raven and Krysten moaned in frustration, while Zyon just grinned wider.

"King and Blue Mary? I know those two." He stated.

"Do you mean as friends, or you used some pick-up line to try to get them into bed." Xion snorted.

"Friends. I'm not stupid enough to hit on them, they already got men who want to have their way with them. I just know that they're very nice as long as we don't act like jerks."

"I doubt that it will do very good." Krysten said. "We're going to lose in the first round, to girls, and our reputation will be ruined."

"Don't act that way." The representative said. "I'm sure you'll be able to win. I believe in you."

Raven let out a breath. "Alright. Do you think that we should stay here and think up a strategy for this fight, or do you want to go get lunch?"

"Lunch." The rest of the team said.

"Okay. Let's use the back so security won't notice Irena." They all filed out of the room.

* * *

At 6:30 p.m., the SSC left their rooms and rode to the museum. The car ride was quiet as the anxiety was setting in again. Xion was the only calm one (since he was driving). Zyon was constantly running his hands through his hair, Krysten was whispering to himself, and Raven was fiddling with the bandana that was hanging from his neck. The fact that clouds were gathering above them wasn't helping. They got out of the car quickly and rushed in before it started raining. 

Irena led them to the center of the museum, where the fight would take place. It was right in front of a T-Rex skeleton eating a triceratops skeleton. The bones of the ancient creatures were in display all around, models were shown in a display case on the other side of the room, posters with facts was on the walls, the ceiling was made of glass, with steel support across, and the windows surrounded a side of the room overlooking the city and the dark clouds that was moving through.

"So as soon as the other team shows up, I'll let the sponsor know that you are all here, then I'll officially start the match, okay?" Irena smiled. The other team members grunted a positive response.

Raven was with Krysten, trying to ease the poor boy's anxiety, while Xion crossed his arms, pulled his hood up and went to sleep.

Twenty minutes later, the Ladies team arrived at the building. But since the building was mostly closed, they had a hard time finding their opponents. After five minutes, they arrived at the center of the museum. Or at least one of them.

"Finally…" King sighed. "You know they could of though of a better place to have an official match."

Irena, who had dozed off a bit, was startled. "Oh, It's you. You've arrived." She said yawning. "I would have appreciated it if you didn't get here so damn late, but you're right on time."

"I'm sorry." Mary, who had arrived seconds later apologized. "We had trouble finding this place since we didn't quite speak the language."

"Anyway, where's the team at?" King asked.

"Three of them are off somewhere, one of them is sleeping over there." She pointed at the sleeping Xion, who didn't seem disturbed by all the noise.

Mary giggled. "He's kinda cute, sleeping like that."

At that time Kasumi Todoh and Li Xiangfei finally made there entrance, and boy did they look frustrated.

"It's like going through a cornfield maze." Kasumi sighed. "I apologize for getting lost."

"It's alright." Mary replied before the three remaining opponents arrived. "Hey, Zyon!"

The blond boy smiled and accepted Mary's enthusiastic hug. "Hey Mary."

"Hello, you pesky little brat." King said, putting him in a headlock.

"Wow, you do know them well." Irena said, before getting out her cell phone. "Now go determine your fighting orders while I call our sponsor.

The teams both gathered and discussed order. The SSC decided that since Xion was asleep, he should go first.

"Xio-Xio, wake up." Zyon called.

"Hmm? What did I tell you about calling me that?" Xion said weakly, getting up and stretching. "Is our match starting?"

"Yes, and you're first." Raven answered.

"Alright." The obsidian haired boy walked forward, where Kasumi, who had volunteered to go first, was already waiting.

"Okay...Yes, they are both ready…Alright…Bye." Irena hung up. "Now, let's get things started. My name is Irena Toryu, and welcome to The King of Fighters 1999. I will be officiating this match up. The rules have been explained to you, so I will not bother explaining them again. To the left, we have Shin Sekai Chitsujo, to the right, The Ladies team. I want a good fight, and preferably a clean one, but I doubt that will happen. Okay, Xion, Kasumi, get ready."

Xion removed his hood, and brushed his hair back while extending his hand. "Come."

Kasumi brought her arms to her sides. "Onegai Shimasu!"

"_Round 1: Xion Shinlon vs. Kasumi Todoh. Fight!"_

Xion pulled his hood back up on his head, and stood there for a second before moving his arm sharply. Kasumi instantly pulled her guard up, and Xion went for the attack. Using his right arm, he let out a light punch, enough to get an early advantage. Kasumi was quick, catching his fist with one hand, and pushing him off with her foot, sending him back a few steps.

Xion decided to try again, and the same thing happened, only Kasumi slid between his legs and kicked him in the back, sending him to the ground. Xion got back up, starting to get a little upset. He charged forward, looking as if he was getting ready to throw another punch, but instead sent his foot straight towards her head.

Once again, however, Kasumi was quick enough to grab his foot, twist it around her leg, and send his knee crashing into the marble floor.

"Shit!" Xion rolled to a stand, hopping on one leg while waiting on the pain to subside. Too bad he had her back to Kasumi.

"YAHH!" She performed a Kasane Ate right on his spine, and Xion was on the ground again.

Lifting his hood so he could see what was going on, the obsidian haired teen saw Kasumi easing his way over to his position, giving Xion a chance to finally get some offense in.

After rolling to close the last bit of distance, he shot straight up with a kick, landing right on Kasumi's face, lifting her up, and sending her crashing into the ground. Xion landed on his feet, but, stumbled a bit.

"Senryutai." He said softly. When he looked up, Kasumi had already recovered, and had her hands in the air. Logic told the teen that it wasn't a good sign, so rather than stand there and try to see what happens, he ran like hell.

"Cho…Kasane Ate!"

Xion doubted he could run fast enough, as he could already feel the heat from the attack on his back. What's more, he was about to run into a wall. Telling his teammates to get out of the way, he dashed out of the path, just in time for the wave to hit the wall, leaving a large, smoking, potentially expensive scar on it.

Kasumi had to shield her eyes from the blast, and when she recovered, Xion was nowhere to be found.

"Uh…did I win?" She asked, looking at her teammates. They just shrugged.

"Don't underestimate me…" Xion's voice was heard. Kasumi looked behind her, and Xion attacked.

"Koryuga!" A dragon head shaped projectile came right at her, ramming into her before she could block. She fell to her knees and let out a few pained breaths before regaining her senses and standing back up. She spun around, and threw her leg at his head, but he caught it, tripped her other leg, and sent her crashing to the ground before flipping himself over and landing his heel into her stomach.

Xion got up and removed his hood to brush the hair out of his eyes. "Come on…"

Poor Kasumi was noticeably weakened by now, but she wasn't about to give up yet. But when she threw another punch, Xion caught her by the wrist, kicked her in the stomach, and slammed a palm in her back.

He knew it was time to end it.

Bringing his hand back a bit, and waited…

Just as he predicted, Kasumi started to move her arms up to block, and her left forearm met Xion's fist.

_SNAP!!_

Lighting lit the room for that final moment. Xion dropped his hands and watched as Kasumi's eyes widened, then slammed shut as she clutched her arm and seethed. She barely managed, to call Irena to her, and whisper something in her ear.

"Kasumi is unable to continue, on account of the fact that her arm seems to be broken." Irena announced. "So, the winner of this match is Xion."

Xion placed his fist in his palm and bowed. "Forgive me."

Both teams helped Kasumi up and placed her against the wall to rest, then returned to start the next round.

_Round 2: Xion vs. Mary._

"Are you ready?" Mary stated. Xion just pulled his hood back on.

_FIGHT!_

Before Xion had time to even move, Mary was behind him in an instant, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Goodnight!" Xion's head crashed into the hard floor.

Staying down for a few seconds, he attempted a Senryutai, but Mary caught his leg, and trapped it in a clutch lock for a few moments; Afterwards, she grabbed his other leg, stood up, and seesawed him straight into the wall. Since Mary still had his legs wrapped around, he fell back right into her bent knees.

The rest of the SSC cringed, while the Ladies Team cheered for their friend.

Xion struggled to get up, and when he did, he was _exhausted._ The last fight must have zapped his energy real fast, now he had only enough energy for one last attack. Gathering energy, he started running towards Mary in a maddening pace.

Mary noticed it and barely managed to get into a blocking stance before…

"_Houshin Renha!"_

It was larger than the Koryuga, and even harder to block. Mary felt like her arms were being sliced by knives, and once the attack passed, it looked even worse. But it wasn't bad enough to knock her out.

Xion, on the other hand, was too tired to even see correctly, much less continue, so when he found himself with Mary's arms around his head, spinning him around, he was already semi-unconscious.

"Dynamite Swing!" Mary slowed down enough that Xion didn't fly very far or fast into a wall or anything, and the teen landed with a thud.

"Xion is knocked out, so Mary winds the round." Irena stated, somewhat worriedly.

"Bakyun!" Mary did her famous taunt.

Xion regained enough awareness that he didn't need to go to the hospital, so he went back to his side of the room.

"Zyon…It's your turn." He stated weakly. His friend just nodded and went to his place in the ring.

"_Round 3: Zyon Kasanari vs. Mary!"_

Zyon elegantly bowed to Mary, before getting into his stance.

"_FIGHT!"_

Mary instantly ran at her opponent. Zyon just stuck her leg out, and she fell flat on the floor. Raven and Krysten started to laugh hysterically.

"Very funny." Mary muttered while getting up, but Zyon was gone. "Where did you go?"

A gust of wind blew in her face, and she felt someone run past, but there was no one there. Mary felt a pressure on her head.

"Up here!"

Zyon was doing a handstand on top of her head. He swung down and jammed a knee into her back. Then grabbing her arm, he started to kick her everywhere. Mary felt like she was being assaulted with a machine gun.

Zyon stopped at about thirty, and teleported a few steps away. He took a pair of black gloves out of his pockets, and put them on. He clasped his hands in front of him for a moment.

"I hope this works." He exclaimed. His blue eyes turned green, and he held out his hand. He took out a small lighter and started to flick it above his hands a few times. Eventually, a small light formed in his palms, and it slowly started to turn into a light blue flame. Zyon winced a little bit. "It still hurts a bit, but I can't really complain." He said as he transferred his flame to the other hand.

Irena, Raven, Krysten and the rest of the Ladies team were stunned. Xion was too busy dosing off to notice. Mary stood her ground, but couldn't help feeling a little scared at this new technique that Zyon seemingly pulled from nowhere.

Zyon walked forward a bit, and Mary noticed that his speed seemed to decrease dramatically compared to a few minutes ago, so she took the chance and try to perform a M. Spider on him.

"AHH!"

She neglected to note that Zyon's hands were hotter than hell.

"I'm sorry." Zyon said with sincerity. "But I have to finish this. My hands are starting to bleed." Then he started running towards Mary. She jumped up, but Zyon followed her up, grabbed her, landed on the ground, and started to sprint to the farthest wall facing them.

Mary couldn't see anything but blurs and flames as Zyon slammed her to the wall. It wasn't very hard, but this, along with the injury to her arms from blocking the Houshin Renha and touching the flames, seemed to sap a lot of energy from her, but she still had enough to turn the match towards her favor.

Leaping towards her feet, Mary pounced on the blond headed teen and used M. Typhoon to slam him on the ground.

Zyon nearly lost his flames getting up from the attack, and there was a trail of blood running down the side of his head, but he still looked like he had plenty of fight left in him, unlike Mary, who was starting to run out of gas.

Zyon brought his hands back a bit. "Suitai shi nasai…" he whispered. Mary stumbled forward, and he slammed his extremely hot fist directly on her chin, sending her high in the air. He jumped after her, threw her to the ground, and slammed his other hand on the floor, releasing a small pillar of flame half his size, sending Mary up again before finally falling to the ground for the last time.

Irena doubted that Mary was unconscious before she hit the floor _the first time._ "Mary is out, so Zyon wins the round."

Zyon produced a cigarette out of nowhere, and lit it with the last remaining flame in his hand. He took a deep breath, and blew the smoke out in the air as King stepped hesitantly into the fighting area.

"Mary will be okay." Zyon said without even looking at her. "She'll just be sore for a while. It was never my intention to really hurt her."

"Okay." King replied softly.

"Besides, I can't use the flames anymore anyway." Zyon's hands still had faint wisps of smoke coming from them.

"_Round 4: Zyon vs. King!"_

King ran a hand through her hair. "I'll be your opponent."

"_FIGHT!"_

Zyon hands were injured from the heat, so until they had a chance to heal, he couldn't use his _other_ technique at the moment. He was severely handicapped, but he felt like he had his normal speed back, so he decided to fight it out till the end.

Zyon disappeared and reappeared in front of King, punching her in the stomach, and while she held it, dropped the front of his foot on the back of her neck.

King recovered quickly, and sent a Double Strike towards Zyon, who wasn't able to dodge in time, and took them both in the chest, causing him to fall on a knee and cough. King took that opportunity to deliver a hard kick into his face, sending him crumbling to the floor. It was just enough to cause Zyon's body to stop responding.

"Zyon is knocked out, so King wins the round." Irena was getting extremely worried. Her team was on the verge of getting beat on the third round.

King threw him a rose, while Zyon looked up at her. A weak smile formed on his lips. "I guess I used more energy than I though." He said, pushing himself up. "How embarrassing."

Zyon walked to his teammates, somewhat frustrated. Krysten was the last fighter for the SSC, so whatever nerves he had was pushed aside quickly. Giving one last glance at his brother, he walked to the center of the fighting area, staring at the sky through the glass ceiling.

"_Final Round: Krysten vs. King!"_

Krysten took a deep breath. "Here I come."

"_FIGHT!"_

Krysten didn't bother strategizing, instead opting to make a quick side step and drive an elbow to King's stomach. He didn't expect do to more damage to _himself_ than his opponent.

"Sorry kid, but stomach blows don't really hurt people who practice Muay Thai boxing." King said, laughing at Krysten holding his elbow in pain.

Krysten frowned, and replied with a knee to that same stomach. That worked _way_ better. Krysten gave King five more solid knees to the stomach, and kicked her away, quickly closing ground to make sure she didn't have time to breathe.

King blocked Krysten's foot from stomping her arm, and tripped him before getting back on her feet.

"Trap Shot!"

Thirteen kicks later, Krysten was on the defensive. Even when he was blocking them, King's kicks were painful. He pushed her away and called for his brother, who was striker. King called for Xiangfei, who made silly faces at Krysten, causing him to drop his guard and get a foot in the side of his face.

King was about to kick him again, when she noticed Raven pointing what seemed to be a small, round, purple ball at her. Small, that is, for awhile, before getting really big.

"Kiren'eki…"

Before she knew it, she was hit with a massive amount of force by Krysten, sending her to the air, where the projectile hit dead center at her stomach. It hurt like hell. From what little she saw, she could have sworn that it when _through_ her, it sure did feel like it.

"King?!" Xiangfei asked. She was so caught up at King's problem, she didn't notice that Raven had fired another (albeit smaller) Kiren'eki at her, and it smacked her square on her face.

King landed in a crouch, and shot off a Double Strike, which Krysten evaded. He got close to her and launched a powerful spinning kick, his foot slamming King up in the air for the second time. Reaching into his sleeve, he pulled out a steel link chain and with a flick of a wrist, dragged the kick-boxer back down to the ground, very painfully. He walked over to her and loosened the chain's grip from her neck, ensuring she would breathe normally.

He waited a while for King to get up, and when she finally did, she was rewarded with his chain slapping her in the thigh.

"OW! You know, that's really cheap." King seethed, and she got rewarded with another chain lashing at the hand that was soothing her thigh.

"Hush." Krysten said gently. "You don't want me to hit your pretty head, do you?"

King growled and jumped at him. Krysten focused all his energy into his chain covered right hand. A dark red sphere of energy formed around the brown haired teen. King ran right into it, and waves of pain shot through her. By time the energy faded away, King was already out cold, and wasn't getting up anytime this evening.

Irena had to restrain herself from leaping for joy. "King is out, so Krysten wins the round. The Shin Sekai Chitsujo have won the match, and will go to the next round."

Krysten smiled, proud that he had come through for his team, before Irena ran and gave him a big hug.

"You did it!" She cheered. Raven gave his brother a big grin, Xion gave a weak smile and Zyon raised his hands in victory.

The SSC had proved that they were, at the least, worthy of being in this tournament.

* * *

"Wow…" Clark stated. " I know I shouldn't be surprised, with this being KOF and all, but I am." 

Heidern had scoped out the location of the fight, and installed cameras all over the museum in order to get a look at this new team. They were obviously astounded at their performance.

"These clever little kids actually won?" Ralf replied. "I wouldn't have believed it either, but there you go."

"So Leona, what do we do?"

The blue haired soldier sighed. "I'll have to think about it. But I don't think they will pose too much of a problem."

Whip just stood there and wondered if the SSC knew what they were getting themselves into.

She, of all people, knows what's waiting at the other side of the curtain.

* * *

Shikkoku: (Pants) I hope you like this, because this took about a week to complete. I'll probably have to revise this anyway, because I think the fight scenes are not quite up to par. Maybe I should get a beta, but I doubt that will happen. I'm still working on some of the special moves for the SSC, so it might seem a little half done. Please give me feedback, so I know how you feel about the story. 

Notes:

_That's right. Zyon has flames. If you read the story all the way, you'll see that like I said, he's not very good at using them yet. Zyon will give a long explanation for the fire next chapter, and believe me, it's more complex than you would think. It'll also explain why his fight with King lasted all of three seconds. Zyon has three styles, normal, fire, and another style that will remained unnamed until the next fight._

_No fight next chapter, after the long, troublesome path of trying to write a fight scene, I'm going to practice a bit before going on ahead with the second round of the tournament._

_Starting next chapter, I'll post profiles of the SSC team, each chapter will have a member's profile, and a sort biography, going in this order: Raven, Krysten, Zyon, Xion._

Kurai Tenshi will probably get updated tomorrow, and I mean it this time. I already have the chapter completed, and it's quite short, but it's only the second chapter. As for this story, the next chapter should be a short one, but my birthday is coming up, so don't be surprised if you have to wait another week…

Next chapter: The SSC celebrate their first victory, and Zyon runs into a certain brown-haired, weapon wielding girl.

Until next time…


	4. Whipped

Shikkoku: I don't own KOF. I do own any original characters that appear in this story.

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The King of Fighters: New Blood

Act 1: Arrival

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

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Rain was pouring down when the SSC walked out of the museum.

Zyon, who had managed to recover really fast, decided to drive the team home since Xion was still too disoriented to do anything. Raven and Krysten were still celebrating in the back of the car, debating on what extravagant order they should call room service with when they get back. Xion had fallen asleep again, and Zyon just wanted to get home and rest.

When they go to the hotel (again, using the back entrance), Irena went off to her own room, saying that their next match will happen the day after the last match of the current round, which was tomorrow. Raven and Krysten went to their room and ordered the most expensive items on the menu. Xion was resting quietly on the bed, finally looking like he was getting better.

Zyon, however, was restless. It wasn't because he lost so quickly in the match; he always knew that using those flames had a chance of him becoming more susceptible to damage that if he hadn't used them at all. He just didn't feel like doing much of anything right now. Noting that the people had mistakenly put alcohol in the mini-fridge, he took one of the glass bottles of beer and started to drink as he left the room.

Somehow, he found himself on top of the roof. It was a very beautiful view of the city, the lights managed to brighten the area, so Zyon had no trouble moving around the place. As he went to look over the edge of the building, he heard a gun click. Zyon knew that it was probably pointed at him, and sighed.

"Dammit, what's wrong?" he said without bothering to turn around. "Did I interrupt some meeting or something?"

The person who was behind him lowered the gun. "I'm very sorry, it's a habit."

"That's okay." He finally turned around to see a young brown haired girl in what seemed to be a military outfit. "What the hell are you wearing?"

"It's my uniform." She said plainly.

"Are you part of the military or something?"

The girl gave a small smile. "Something like that." She took a closer look at Zyon. "Wait, you're one of the kids from the tournament!"

Zyon grinned. "Yep. My name is Zyon Kasanari."

"I know. You're the guy with the fire right?"

"Uh…I guess you could say that. Anyway, what's your name."

"Whip."

"….." Zyon blinked, before grinning. "I think I know how you got that name. Your mom must have been one of those people who likes to use..."

"NO!" Whip hissed. "I work for a military organization. I'm not telling you my real name."

"Fine. What are you doing up here at this time of night?"

"I was hoping I could come up here and think for a little bit. I had no idea that you would be strolling up here to get drunk."

"I'm not trying to get drunk." Zyon said, throwing the now empty beer bottle off the roof. "I'm just bored." He paused for a moment. "Are you in this tournament too?"

Whip nodded.

"Which team are you in?"

"I'm in the team with Ralf, Clark, and Leona."

"The Ikaris?" Zyon knocked himself on his head. "I should have known with that outfit."

They stood their silently towards the horizon for a few moments.

"Well, I'll see you again soon." Zyon said, deciding to leave her alone, but before he could walk away, something tight wrapped around his arm. It looked like a blue rope, and that rope yanked him off his feet and drug him across the ground.

Zyon could hear Whip laughing softly as she dragged him towards her feet, then yanked him back to a standing position.

She brushed the hair from his ear. "Between you and me, I think you are really cute." She whispered. "But if we meet in the battlefield, my whip tends to cry for blood, and I have no choice but to provide it." She let go of him and walked off.

Zyon rubbed his arm. "Why is it that the cutest girls I meet are usually the ones who want to kill me?"

-----------

_The next day…_

-----------

Raven woke up to the sounds of Krysten watching cartoons. Yawning he got up and washed up real quick.

"Raven," Krysten called. "You better get down to the breakfast buffet before our teammates get up and devour it."

Raven thought about not going, but his stomach was already growling loud enough for people to call animal services, so he decided to go downstairs before it was too late. Before he left however, he decided to inquire Irena about when the flight to the next match leaves. When he arrived at her door, he knocked gently and she opened the door about a minute later, wearing a towel around her body. It took everything Raven had to not run away.

"Good morning Raven." Irena didn't seem to notice the very uncomfortable look on the boys face. "I just finished up dying my hair again."

Raven noticed it was a pale red now. "How many times do you dye your hair, anyway?"

"It depends on how long it takes me to get tired of my current color. It's kinda weird, but my boss likes it. Anyway, what's up?"

"When's our flight leaving?" Raven asked, the tension relieved somewhat.

Irena thought for a second, "Give me a half hour, and I'll have your answer. At the meanwhile, go downstairs and get some breakfast. Your blond friend just left five minutes ago."

"Shit!" Raven cursed before he ran off to keep Zyon from eating everything up.

----------

Ralf and Clark had convinced Leona to go get her something to eat from downstairs, since she was up all night trying to continue her investigations into the sponsor of the tournament.

"After what happened at the other KOFs, why would anyone want to hold another one?" She thought to herself. "Better yet, why do people keep entering? Maybe if we all decide to sit out KOF for a change, maybe things would be more peaceful for us."

All of a sudden, a crash was heard from the balcony upstairs. Looking up, Leona saw a blond boy running from another person with a more darker shade of blond and a red thing around his neck. They disappeared for about a moment, then reappeared on the bottom floor. Since they got there at exactly the same time, they stopped running and made their way towards the huge assortment of food.

"What to do, what to do…" Raven said as he and Zyon just started putting all sorts of stuff on his plate before sitting down and eating in a way not usually seen by the hotel's rich customer base.

Leona looked on in disbelief. How did these guys get into KOF?

"Kickass! They have champagne too!" Zyon got up and rushed to the champagne counter, shoving a couple out of the way to get 4 glasses.

Draining the first glass quickly, he offered some to Raven, who refused politely, so he drank the other three glasses.

----------

Irena finally got herself dressed up and was on her laptop, checking all the current standings on the tournament.

"I see our little experiment is doing a excellent job so far." She smiled to herself. "At this point, everything is right on schedule. Now, it's time that I end my stay here." Reaching under the bed, she took out a small box full of various spray cans and a small gas mask. Putting the mask on her face, she got to work on thanking the people here.

----------

"I've been meaning to ask you…" Raven asked Zyon. "When did you start having flames?"

Raven and Zyon back upstairs, and with plates full of food that Krysten and Xion where gobbling up..

"I been experimenting with it for a while now, it's pretty complicated." Zyon put on his gloves again. "Basically I can only manipulate fire at this point, not summon it. Without a source, I can't even make a ember on my own." He took out his lighter and ignited the blue flame. "It's kinda like how a lighter works. I have the fuel, I just need a spark to light it."

"That's pretty cool." Krysten said. "Do you think you can teach me how to do it?"

"I haven't even begun to master it yet. This method is only until I learn to make flames on my own." Zyon blew the flames out. "I'm getting closer, but still not at that point yet. It also slows me down somewhat, so I'm not as fast as I am normally."

Irena opened the door. "Your plane leaves in a hour, so get packing." She announced.

"Why do you have paint all over you?" Raven asked. Irena just smiled and left.

After getting packed, they were getting ready to leave when Irena asked for the keys to the other two rooms and that she'll meet them downstairs. They were at the door for about 10 minutes when they saw their representative running towards them.

"Car…Car…Get in the car NOW!" She shouted, rushing by them in a hurry. The SSC was confused, but decided to do what she said. They rushed to the car and started their drive to the airport.

"What was going on up there?" Zyon asked.

"I decided to show those jackasses at the hotel how I feel about them questioning your worth."

"How?"

"I rather not say right now." She laughed softly.

----------

Back at the hotel, the housekeepers walked into the room that Irena just left. When they opened the door, they found the room covered in paint. The pictures and random furniture that was in the room was shattered all over the place. On the wall was a giant 'X' with dots placed inside the left, right, and bottom corners. On the bed was a note...

_Don't you ever question the ability of the Shin Sekai Chitsujo again._

_Irena Toryu_

----------

"Anyway," she continued, "Your next match will be set as soon as your plane lands."

The rest of the trip was without incident, and before they knew it, they were on the plane. Everybody was asleep but Raven. He was staring out the window, looking at the clouds. The SSC had won, but he still wasn't exactly satisfied. While he managed to get a move in as a striker, he wanted a real match.

"Watcha thinking about?" Irena, who was sitting next to him asked.

"Nothing…" Raven sighed for a moment. "You know, I like your hair that color. Maybe you should keep it that way for a while."

Irena blushed. "Th-thank you."

----------

Shikkoku: Yeah, It's short. This is more filler than anything, and it didn't really give you anything new besides the deal with Zyon's flames, and the beginning of a situation with Whip and the SSC which will develop more as we go along. The second round is next chapter, so it won't be up for a while.

Well as promised, here's the first of the bios for the SSC, starting with the team leader:

_RAVEN KIRISHIMA_

_Fighting Style: A unnamed style he learned from his foster family._

_Birth-date: Doesn't Know_

_Age: 16_

_Birthplace: Doesn't know._

_Blood Type: A_

_Height: 5'10_

_Weight: 150 lb_

_Hobbies: Fighting, Sleeping, Pissing off Krysten_

_Favorite Food: He'll eat ANYTHING._

_Best Sport: none_

_Most Important: His younger brother and adoptive family_

_Dislikes: Having Amnesia_

_A high school student with a somewhat arrogant attitude, he enters the King of Fighters for the chance to fight many great opponents. His skill is rather high as far as fighting ability goes, but Raven tends to be rather hesitant about revealing it's orgins._

Next chapter: Second Round. Shin Sekai Chitsujo vs. ??? Who will they fight in the next round?

Until next time.


	5. Round 2: SSC vs Psycho Soldiers

Shikkoku Kiyoshi does not own The King of Fighters.

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The King of Fighters: New Blood

Act 1: Arrival

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

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"Let me get this straight. A huge pop star, her friend, a young Chinese boy with psychic powers, and a old man is our next opponents?!"

The SSC had landed in the new location and arrived at the hotel with no trouble (much to Irena's pleasure). Their representative had just announced the next match, and Raven and Krysten wasn't too happy with their next opponents, the Psycho Soldiers.

The older Kirishima slapped a hand on his face in frustration. "Of all the fighters you have competing in this damn tournament, we have to face THEM?!"

Krysten just sighed. "Hopefully if we win, they'll put us against some real fighters."

Xion, as usual, didn't really care.

Zyon stared at the picture of the team, and inwardly shuddered. Having to fight Athena Asamiya wasn't exactly something he was looking forward to.

Irena shut her laptop. "Don't underestimate the Psycho Soldiers. They will take you out quick if you get too cocky."

"Even if we do beat them, the massive wave of angry Athena fans will eat us alive." Krysten acknowledged. Raven just sat in a chair and started mumbling about not getting taken seriously enough.

Zyon decided to go get something to eat, so he left the Irena, Xion and the stewing Kirishimas alone in the room as he went downstairs. Once he found the dining hall, he arrived to see Athena herself mulling on the various dinner options at the buffet.

The young blond boy ducked behind one of the booths and sighed. He did not need to see her right now. Especially since Athena now knew that she would be fighting against him.

"She's probably wondering what I'm doing here." He mused. "Then again, she wasn't there when I put my name in the hat for this thing."

Zyon knew that he couldn't stay there for the rest of his life, so he got out and started assaulting the buffet, doing his best to stay away from the young girl. The food wasn't as good as the other place, so he only found about two or three things that looked really good.

After he was done, he decided it would be better for his sanity if he ate by himself. In a table far in the back, he sat himself down. Zyon couldn't even smoke in this room, so he was feeling terrible.

Zyon hadn't gotten halfway through his food before he felt something cold press against his head, and he knew who was on the other end of that.

"Sweetheart," Zyon faked a kind tone. "One of these days, the gun is going to go off and you are going to be in big trouble."

Whip put her desert eagle back in her holster. "It wasn't loaded anyway, weenie."

"What do you want?"

"Well, I wanted to get something to eat before our match today, when I saw you." She smiled. "Can I sit with you?"

Zyon thought about it for a second. "Where's your other members?"

"They're out. That's all I can say."

"In that case, go on ahead." Whip sat in the seat in front of him. "What's with the sudden interest in me?"

"I just figured that us newcomers should stick together. Besides, like I said, you're kinda cute."

Zyon gave a big grin. "Well I can't blame you for wanting to be with a boy like me."

Whip only rolled her eyes and took pieces of food out of the various plates. "So who are you fighting next?"

Zyon motioned towards Athena with his head.

"I see." Whip retorted. "And you're hiding from her?"

"NO!" Zyon whispered. "I just don't want to see her before the fight."

"Why?"

"It's hard to explain. If I see Athena, then when it's time to fight her, I'll end up hesitating. Truthfully, I would be a striker in this match if Xio-kun wasn't too injured to fight."

The two ate for a little bit, making small chat about the hotel. Before he asked, "How old are you anyway?"

Whip munched on a sweet roll. "Sixteen."

It took a few moments for Zyon to process it through his head, which was good, since it prevented him from making a big scene. "Sixteen?! What kinda organization hires kids to fight for the military?" Zyon said, even though he knew a _lot _of them.

Whip on the other hand, glared knives and daggers at the teen. "I am NOT a kid. You have no idea how _false_ that statement is."

Zyon smiled. "I seem to have hit a nerve. I apologize. You're not a kid, you're a annoying young woman with a BDSM fetish who thinks that she can win a tournament with a pop gun and a sex toy."

Whip slapped him.

Zyon got up and looked at her. "Oooh. Ouch." He rubbed his face, but smiled.. "I might have hit another sensitive spot."

Whip's anger died down a bit. "I'm sorry about that, but I really don't like it when someone insults my precious Voodoo. But truthfully, If I really wanted to, I could kill you right now with this whip."

"Then you and me are more alike than you think. I guess I'm sort of an hypocrite for saying that you're a kid, since I'm only one year older than you. But still, If you do face me in this tournament, I don't really care if you're sixteen or a girl, I'm not holding back." Zyon got up close to Whip till his nose almost touched hers. "Push me, and I can't promise that I will not kill you."

Zyon smiled while he grabbed his plates. "But I hope I don't hurt you _too_ bad. You're intriguing, to say the least."

Whip just watched his retreating form as he went upstairs, thinking about what he just said.

"Intriguing?" She smiled to herself. "That's a rather _nice_ way of putting it…"

----------

A few hours later, everyone was out like a light except for Raven. He was on the balcony, staring out at the sparse amount of people walking about in this time of night.

"Yo Raven." Irena said quietly. "What's going on?"

"I just can't sleep right now." He said. "The anxiety is getting to me again."

"I see. If the match has got you that much in knots, don't think about it. Even if you lose, I'll have your back."

"That's sweet of you, but I'm confident that we will win this match. I'm just not sure about the one after this one…"

Irena knocked him in the head. "Silly Raven." A thought occurred to her. "Is Raven your real name?"

Raven eyes dulled. "It's not, but I'm so attached to this name that it's pretty hard to go by any others."

Irena smiled and got up. "It suits you." She opened the door. "I don't know why, it just suits you."

Raven sighed as he heard the door close. It was going to be one hell of a bout. He just hoped his team was up to it.

----------

"So, how are you doing…" A voice asked over the phone.

Irena was on sitting Indian-style on her bed. The lights were off, leaving only the open window.

The girl shrugged her shoulder lightly. "I'm okay. The SSC are a dream to work with."

"That's good to hear." The voice sounded pleased. "Our plan is going ahead smoothly. Keep an eye out for our little experiment."

"Will do. Bye." She hung up the phone, and flopped back in her bed with a sigh.

----------

"Okay, here we are!"

The next day, the team set out for their next match. Irena drove for about fifteen minutes before they arrived at a park. It was a sunny day wit a few clouds gathering a distance back. Some kids were busy playing ball, a man was feeding some birds under the awning, and a few men where cleaning the litter that spotted some parts of the otherwise green lawn.

Zyon stretched. "Now that's more like it." He said. "Well, sort of."

"Do these people even know that a savage fight is about to occur?" Krysten asked.

"They'll leave when the other team arrives." Irena took out her laptop and started fiddling around.

Xion yawned. "Well in that case," he spoke as he laid down on a nearby bench. "I'm going to take a little nap."

"Xion, you've been sleeping for most of this tournament!" Raven glared. "We need you active for your duty as a striker."

"Keh. I suppose your right." Xion sat up. "So what is the order for this match?"

"Me, Zyon, Krysten."

Zyon nodded absent-mindedly. His thoughts were on Athena, and the very real chance that he would have to fight her. "I guess I have no choice." He said to himself. "Even if she is Athena Asamiya, the most beautiful pop star in the world, she's my opponent. I'll beat her, and once this thing is over, we'll be as right as rain again."

They all wandered around for an hour, and by time the Psycho Soldiers arrived, the SSC were playing a game of soccer with a empty can.

"Huh? Crap, it's the team!" Raven shouted, and Zyon and Krysten stopped playing and joined him at the fighting grounds.

Athena took a good look at the contestants. "Hello you guys!" She waved happily, trying to see if they were okay to talk to. Krysten smiled and copied her motion which made Raven shake his head in shame. Zyon tried all his effort to stand quietly and not shrink behind the younger Kirishima like a scared cat. All seemed to be going well until Athena walked up to him and grabbed both of his hands.

"Zyon, I'm so glad to see you're in the tournament!" she said, giving him a warm smile that made his pulse increase. "I know you'll do great!"

Zyon retuned the sentiments, somewhat relieved. "Thank you, Athena."

"Uh, Zyon?" Krysten spoke. "Do you know her personally?"

"That's none of your damn business." Zyon glared at him, his eyes turning a orange-red hue.

Irena cleared her throat. "Okay, social hour's over. It's time to get ready. Athena, go to the other side so I can do the introductions."

Athena gave Zyon a wink before going to her team's side. Zyon nearly melted on the spot.

"Okay, This is the next match in the King of Fighters 1999. My name is Irena Toryu, and along with being a representative, I will also be officiating this match. This is the second round match up between the Shin Sekai Chitsujo on the left, and the Psycho Soldiers on the right. I want a clean match, and for goodness sake, don't kill anybody. Would the first fighters please step forward?"

Raven walked forward. In his view, a small, smiling boy wearing orange clothing.

Bao gave a small bow. "It is very nice to meet you!"

The blond teen resisted the urge to sigh.

"_Round 1: Raven vs. Bao!"_

Raven untied the black and red bandana around his neck and tied it around his head. "Your life is in my hands now."

Bao was unaware of the ominous words spouted by his opponent. "Go easy on me!"

_Fight!_

"Psycho Ball!" Bao threw a blue ball of energy at him immediately. Raven easily avoided it, but it bounced off the wall and came back, smacking him on the head. It didn't hurt much, but it threw the boy off his game enough that Bao was able to hit him with a Psycho Ball: Crush.

Krysten slapped his head. "My brother is about to lose to a twelve year old!" he thought. "Come on!"

Raven got up, and tried to reassess the situation. He wasn't about to go full strength against a boy. He had to defeat him _quickly_.

Dashing forward, he thrust his elbow out into the young boy's stomach, then smashed his upper chest with a palm. Raven took a step back, before performing a spinning sweep. Bao jumped over the foot and sent another Psycho Ball towards his opponent, but it missed him by a few inches and bounced high in the air, hitting a bird in the process.

"Oh dear!" Bao rubbed his head and gave a meek grin. "I didn't mean to do that."

Raven just shook his head and got back into stance. "Ha!" He tossed a fireball on his own, and again Bao jumped over it, but Raven smacked a fist into his palm and the ball exploded, the wave hitting the twelve-year old out of the sky.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Raven waved his finger a bit. Bao got up and performed another Psycho Ball: Crush, plowing himself into Raven's stomach. He kicked him off, and started to form a Kiren'eki. Bao noticed it and answered by charging a Psycho Ball Attack: MAX.

Now if you seen the Psycho Ball Attack: Max, you would know that it is a _**BIG**_ ball of energy. The Kiren'eki is a thin blade of energy that is noticeably smaller, even when it's charged up fully. It should be also known that the Bao's move charges _way_ faster than Raven's, so it was thrown before Raven could put in the amount of energy for the attack.

Raven, who had no intention of going full power with the Kiren'eki, released it as soon as he thought the Psycho Ball was coming towards him. The projectile (which was dark red this time as opposed to purple in the last match) flew towards the large energy ball, and instead of colliding with it and canceling each other out, the Kiren'eki _cut it in half._ The two halves flew out of control, one nearly hit Irena, the other crashed into a nearby window.

As for the Kiren'eki, it kept going till it hit Bao hard. The boy rolled a bit before stopping in front of a concerned Kensou. He wasn't getting back up.

"Bao is knocked out, so Raven wins the round." Irena announced.

Raven brushed the black bangs out of his hair. "Not a chance." His confidence was going up, and he was getting into this.

Kensou, seeing how easily he dispatched Bao, wasn't feeling as sure of himself. If he couldn't beat him, what could he do? Especially without any powers?

"Kensou…" Chin said from behind him. "Don't let him intimidate you with his powers. I know that it may seem hopeless, but know that we have your back no matter what." He gave a cheesy smile. "Besides, if things get tough, just call striker."

"Yeah!" Athena cheered. "I believe in you! Go on and win!"

Kensou suddenly felt rejuvenated. "Alright, I'll do my best." He rushed towards the ring.

_Round 2: Raven vs. Kensou!_

Kensou took out a meatbun and devoured it. Raven just sweatdropped.

_Fight!_

Kensou used his kung fu skills in good form, hitting Raven with several hand attacks. The blond teen shoved him out of the way, and performed another spinning sweep that knocked him down. Raven tried to kick him in the head, but Kensou rolled away.

"Don't make me have to get serious." Raven said.

"You mean you're not serious now?" Kensou taunted. "You're in a battle, you always have to be serious, unless this whole thing is a big joke to you."

Raven growled and threw another fireball at him, which hit him in the leg. He was starting to get angry. Kensou pushed himself up with one hand and kicked him in the jaw. Raven was launched into the air. The psychic boy followed up with a Ryuu Renga: Tenryuu, sending Raven up even higher. The blond recovered, however, and got his wits about him enough to form a plan.

"XION!" Raven called, shoving Kensou into the striker's direction.

Xion got up from his seat, dashed forward and started punching Kensou rapidly. Xion counted about thirty-eight times before he kicked him back to Raven, who launched a Kiren'eki into his back. Kensou collapsed in pain.

"Kensou…" Athena was worried for her dear friend.

Raven chuckled. "Now do you see?" he taunted. "I'm _deadly_ serious about this."

Kensou could be heard laughing. "I was wrong about you. You are serious about this fight. But…" He jumped back to his feet. "I want this MORE!"

Before Raven could react, Kensou executed his signature Shinryuu Seiou Rekkyaku technique. Raven felt the full force of every blow, and his body was unable to respond to his commands.

"Damn it." He said weakly, but he knew he had to stop. Looking at Irena, he told her that he couldn't continue. The girl sighed.

"Raven cannot continue, so Kensou wins the match."

Kensou waved his finger at the fallen teen. "You need to train some more."

Zyon took a deep breath and stepped up for his turn, while Krysten helped his brother to his side of the fighting area. He grabbed the charm around his neck and took a deep breath. Kensou noticed the sky was starting to go grey, and whatever people was there had started to seek shelter.

_Round 3: Zyon vs. Kensou!_

Zyon jumped a couple of times before running a hand through his hair. "Let's see how long you last."

_Fight!_

Zyon knew he couldn't use flames right now, and he couldn't use his other technique either at the moment, because it would drain him of too much energy, so for now, he had to use his normal style for now. He grabbed Kensou by the collar and dashed over to his teams side. Signaling for his teammates to move out of the way, he smashed Kensou into the wall. He backed off a few steps, then launched a flying kick towards him that hit him in the stomach.

Kensou stumbled back into the ring, slowly trying to regain his focus. Jumping up in the air, he tried to do a Ryuu Sougeki, but Zyon countered by grabbing his outstretched wrist and chucking him into the lawn. It was about that time that it started raining. Zyon threw a small dark blue projectile that skittered across the floor and hit Kensou, who was on his belly in the grass, across the face. He still was able to get up and perform a five-hit rush on Zyon, but the psychic boy was exhausted. Rather than attempting a flashy finish, Zyon just punched him in the stomach, and Kensou fell like a rock.

"Kensou has been knocked out, so Zyon is the winner." Irena announced.

Athena rushed to help her fallen friend. Zyon let out a heavy breath and shook his wet hair. "He'll be okay." He said quietly. "He's just too tired to fight." She nodded and took him out of the rain before rushing back.

_Round 4: Zyon vs. Athena!_

Athena raised her hand. "Athena, Ikimasu!"

_FIGHT!_

Zyon pushed all his nervousness aside and started to fight. He threw another blue projectile, and watched as Athena threw a Psycho Ball that gobbled it up and hit him in the chest. It felt white hot, and Zyon was surprised that it didn't burn his clothes. He lifted his foot in the air and brought it down on Athena's own foot, which caused her to jump around on one leg for a bit. "Ow, ow, ow!"

Zyon shrugged a shoulder. "Hey, come on."

Athena stopped hopping and teleported behind him. "PSYCHO SHOOT!"

Zyon flew a few feet before his head hit one of the rocks on the ground. It wasn't bad, but it left a gash on his head. Zyon got up slowly, his back to Athena.

"Uh, Zyon?" Athena asked. "Are you okay?"

Zyon just looked back at her, blood running down his face. "Yeah, I'm fine." Turning around, he closed his eyes. His hair started to turn a bright white. Athena just looked on in wonder.

"Okay." Zyon said, opening his eyes, whose irises have turned green. "I'm done."

Athena ran forward and did a Psycho Sword, but it didn't hit anything. When she landed, Zyon was gone.

"Huh?"

"I'm over here." Zyon was three feet behind her. Athena was surprised, and threw a Psycho Ball. Zyon disappeared again, and the attack hit Xion instead.

"Ah! Gomen!" Athena bowed.

"Ahhhhh…You hurt Xio-Xio!" Zyon said from….somewhere.

"Cram it." Xion muttered, rubbing his head.

Athena looked wildly for the blond fighter. A lightning bolt crackled behind her, scaring the girl out of her wits.

"STOP THAT!" she screeched.

"Up here!"

Athena found Zyon sitting on the awing, right above her team. He disappeared again and reappeared right in front of her. He struck her with a kick, which she blocked, but a sudden bout of pain shot through her arm. Athena looked at him, and Zyon was standing there with electricity sparking from his body.

"You look worried." Zyon tilted his head. "This electricity won't kill you, but it does hurt." He did a beautiful somersault kick, hitting Athena in the chin and sending a weak jolt through her body.

Zyon landed on his feet. He patiently waited for Athena to get up, and when she did, he dashed past her. Athena stood there for a minute, before searing pain racked her body. She almost collapsed, but her will to fight made her continue. Zyon noticed it, and prepared to attack again, but as soon as he got close, Athena performed the Shining Crystal Bit, and Zyon got launched.

Flipping over, he landed on his feet. Zyon noticed that Athena was in desperation mode, so Zyon, out of kindness (or mercy to some people) closed his eyes, and his hair and powers returned to normal. He didn't need electricity to finish this match.

He still has enough speed to grab Athena and launch her in the air.

"XION!" Zyon shouted. His black-haired friend got up again. "Ready?"

"Ready."

At that point, they both used all their energy and kicked Athena, who was still in the air, at the same time. The psychic girl dropped like a brick. Zyon was worried, but somewhat happy too, now that he redeemed himself.

"Athena is knocked out, so Zyon is the winner." Irena resisted the urge to grin. "The Shin Sekai Chitsujo have won the match, and will go to the quarterfinals."

Zyon wanted to collapse in relief, but instead helped Athena up to her feet. Despite what she went through, she still had a smile on her face.

"I didn't know that you would be that strong." She said. "Congratulations, I'm glad that I got to fight you at last."

Zyon smiled, but was confused. "You wanted to fight me? I didn't know if you would be happy about me entering this tournament without notice."

"Well, I was a little surprised, but I figured that either you were bored or you were goaded into this by your teammates."

"You could say it was the latter." Zyon glanced at Raven and Krysten. "But it was mostly the former. Now go help your teammates."

Athena nodded and rushed off. Zyon drug his body back to his side of the team.

"Way to go, Zyon!" Krysten cheered.

"Thanks a bunch." Zyon gave a big grin. Whatever stress he had earlier that day was gone, and now he could finally relax and enjoy the ride. "How about we go celebrate?"

----------

Shikkoku: I'm very sorry for the wait, but it took a while to get my groove with this chapter, and even then, I got distracted with real life stuff, playing Naruto Ultimate Ninja 2, GameFaqs, and just using the internet in general. I don't know about the next chapter, as I have other stories that need to be updated _desperately._

Notes:

_Well, you just saw Zyon's second power, lightning. Call it overkill if you must, but everything will be explained next chapter, and while he has better control over this than fire, it's still a work in progress. I promise you he's not going to be in constant god mode._

_The fight was shorter than the last one, I know, but it was still pretty long._

_I'm still working on move lists. The SSC don't call out their attacks anyway, so it's not a big deal but…_

Here's the second Bio for the SSC:

_KRYSTEN KIRISHIMA_

_Fighting Style: His own unique style._

_Birthdate: Doesn't Know._

_Age: 15_

_Birthplace: Doesn't know._

_Blood Type: A_

_Height: 5'7_

_Weight: 136 lb_

_Hobbies: Playing video games, riding his motorcycle, sleeping._

_Best Sport: Motorbike Racing_

_Most Important: His older brother and his adopted family that took him in._

_Dislikes: Crashing his bikes. (It happens every now and then.)_

_Raven Kirishima's younger brother, Krysten was found by him before confirmation of his relation to Raven was known. A shy, polite young man, he enters the tournament to support his brother. Though he is friendly, he has a tendency to become mute when around people he doesn't know. His fighting style was developed from experience with studying chi._

Shikkoku: Well, that's it for now. As soon as I update Tsurugi no Kirokusuru, I'll post the next chapter of Kurai Tenshi and then this. As always, tell me what you think.

Until next time.


	6. Downtime

Shikkoku: I don't own anything owned by SNKP.

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The King of Fighters: New Blood

Act 1: Arrival

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

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Once again, Zyon was feeling antsy.

But unlike last time, the feeling wasn't from boredom, but from the fact that he hadn't smoked since that morning. Zyon guessed that fighting Athena made him stop for that short while, but now he was going through withdrawal, and he didn't like it.

The team had been in their hotel rooms resting for a few hours, and it was getting about dinnertime. Zyon decided to go out and get food for everybody (partly because he needed to get some cigarettes anyway.) Xion was in the shower (Mostly due to being out in the rain so long), so he wrote his older friend a note before he left the room. He didn't really need to ask anybody what they wanted, because he knew his friends likes and dislikes to a fault. Irena had given him the address of a food store when they first arrived in town, along with her favorite item on the menu, so Zyon didn't have to worry about her either.

Zyon stepped out into the still moist air. As he started on his way to the shop, he noticed that his body was still feeling the effects of the electricity from the fight. He stopped in the middle of the street, took a few deep breaths, and the feeling was gone.

Zyon didn't really have what many people would call a normal fighting style. Most of his art was based on whatever he could learn from fights he both saw and participated in, but his flames and his electricity was his own style. Unlike the flames in which he was still trying to master, he had more or less perfected his electrical power. In addition to his hair turning pure white, he also gets a speed boost.

His only problem is that he has to sacrifice power to get that speed, while the flames have him sacrificing speed to get more damaging power. But both drain him of energy more quickly than if he didn't use either, and it puts a lot of strain on his body to keep those said forms.

Zyon looked up at the sky, and wondered what his sister would have thought about him using that technique on Athena. "Heh, she would probably kill me." He said to himself, and made a note to call Tera when he got back.

----------

Meanwhile in the hotel, the rest of the SSC were sprawled out in their hotel room. Krysten and Raven played a fighting game on their linked handhelds, while Xion watched TV.

"When do you think Zyon will be back?" Krysten said.

"The place is a mile away." Xion replied. "Probably about half an hour."

"That is, if he doesn't pass a bar on the way there." Raven smirked.

"I doubt that this city would be as lenient on Zyon as they are back home."

The door suddenly opened with Irena's head sticking out. "Hey guys, I have to go do some things for a while. You think you can survive without me?"

"We'll be fine." Raven said, as he beat Krysten flawlessly, causing the younger boy to frown in frustration.

Irena smiled before closing the door. She hadn't taken a step, however, before hearing a loud crash coming through said door, and the sound of Krysten and Raven arguing about some cheating that might have occurred during their game. She just shook her head and left.

----------

"The Shin Sekai Chitsujo has been appointed our next opponents." Leona announced.

The Ikari warriors were all assembled in their room to hear their commander's announcement on their next match. Ralf and Clark grinned evilly eager to kick some newbie ass in their match. Whip on the other hand…

"Commander, I don't think we should take these kids lightly."

Leona gave the newcomer a small smile. "You've obviously not been in enough KOFs. We shouldn't take _anybody _lightly, new or not. Besides, you say you met one of those kids before, did he seem like someone we should be suspicious of?"

"Well, he did say he had no qualms with killing me…" Whip answered. "I'm not sure if he was joking or not."

"Don't take that so seriously." Leona said. "Everybody and their mom have threatened me with painful death, and I usually come out clean as a rose." She paused. "A slightly bloody rose, but nonetheless..."

"Still, maybe we should go see the rest of his team before we make any judgments about their moral compass." Ralf interrupted.

"They don't look like a bad bunch of kids; You shouldn't be too harsh on them." Clark added.

"I guess you're right." Whip got up. "We probably should go up there and tell them the news anyway."

----------

"I543. Yes, that's it."

Irena was in a completely different hotel about five miles down the road. It was an equally nice place, but she knew that the person she was visiting wasn't really one to care about such aesthetics as that.

"Ding dong…" She sang softly. The sounds of grumbling were heard through the door, before it opened to see a young man wit tanned skin and white hair.

"I don't feel like dealing with you right now. Beat it." He said.

"Awww! Don't be that way, K'." Irena pushed him out of the way. "I haven't seen you since I left a while ago. Anyway, where's Maxima?"

"The big loaf went to get some ice cream for some reason." K' sat back on his bed.

"And I'm assuming you refused?"

K' just snorted.

"Well now…" Irena sat on the corner of the bed. "I came to check up on you."

"For what?"

"It's my responsibility. If I left everything to you, you would never get anything done."

"My team hasn't lost, so there's obviously nothing wrong." K' laid back on the bed rest.

"You are very difficult to deal with, you know that?" Irena mumbled.

"Why? Aren't you busy dealing with that team of losers that they placed you with?"

Irena frowned. "They're not losers. And I'm the one who asked to be put up with them so I can observe their fighting ability. Besides, they're very good friends."

"Friends?" K' smirked. "I wonder how friendly they'll be when they find out who you work for?"

The girl paused. She knew that she had to tell them eventually. Irena shook her head.

"We'll just have to see."

----------

Zyon came out of the restaurant with several bags in his arms. It had been a long wait to get his food, but finally he was able to leave the crowded restaurant and go back to the hotel. And he was just about to do that when a car pulled up.

"Hey Zyon." Irena said after she had gotten out of the car. "What's up?"

Zyon shrugged. "I was just getting some food at that place you told me about."

"Oooh! Did you get the thing I liked?"

"Mmm-hmm. I didn't forget you." Zyon grinned.

"It smells wonderful, but I think we should be heading back. I got something to tell all of the Shin Sekai Chitsujo." Irena got back in the car. "Get in; I'll ride you back there."

"Thanks." Zyon jumped in the car, and they drove off.

After a few minutes, Zyon noticed waves of uncertainly coming from his representative. "Is there something wrong, Irena?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing." Irena gave a goofy smile. "I'm just anxious to get back so I can eat."

"Really? Is that so?" Zyon sighed. "You know you can tell me if something is wrong."

Irena frowned again. "I'm just a little exhausted with all that was going on today. I am, in addition to your representative, an employee of the sponsor of this tournament, and so I have a lot of work to do, calculating statistics, updating the standings, contacting the sponsor on a daily basis…" She sighed. "It's all just so tiring."

"I know how you feel." Zyon replied. "I'm a little worried about my sister being home alone."

"You must have had a hard time leaving her by herself."

"It is hard. But Tera has been through a lot, and she's gotten stronger. I'm sure she'll handle herself well." Zyon smiled. "But you shouldn't worry about us, we owe you a lot."

"You don't owe me anything! I more than happy to get you in the tournament." Irena turned a corner. Zyon just leaned back on his seat.

He had a surprise for her once this was over.

---------

Raven and Krysten were, as before, lying around in there room, completely bored. The only difference was that some parts of the room were a wreck, due to their impromptu fight. Raven was busy looking out the window, passing time till Irena or Zyon to come back, while Krysten was trying to get his Game Boy to work.

"Kuso….Raven, could you go to Xion's room and get some more batteries?" Krysten started to whine. Raven thought about telling his younger brother to go get it himself, but he decided against that.

As Raven opened the door, he felt something hard hit it. When he looked behind it and saw a young brown haired girl in a tan uniform on the ground, he knew what had happened.

"Heh. Sorry about that." Raven smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "I must have opened the door too fast."

If it wasn't for the fact that Whip was a kind and patient girl, Raven would probably be halfway to Reikai right now. Instead, she just stood back up again. Ralf and Clark were behind her, trying to hold back laughter, but a sharp glare from Leona quickly clammed them up.

"It's all right. I was walking too close to the doors anyway." Whip said, before she noticed something familiar about the boy. "You're a member of that new team, aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah. My name is Raven Kirishima." The boy looked around at the other members uneasily. "Are you supposed to be another team or something?"

"Yes." Leona inserted herself into the conversation. "My name is Leona Heidern, leader of this team."

"Leona…so this is the Ikaris." Raven said. "Well, whatever you're here to do, make it quick. Zyon is about to comeback with some food and our representative is announcing our next opponent."

"That's why we're up here." Leona smirked, as Raven tried to comprehend.

"You know who our opponent is?" Raven asked. It was a few seconds before he finally got the hint. "Oh crap."

It was about that time that Krysten appeared in the doorway. "What the hell are the Ikaris doing here?"

"They're our next opponent." Raven answered. "So apparently, they're here to either talk smack, or attack us so they can have the advantage."

"Absolutely not." Leona said. "But we are curious to know where your teammate Zyon happened to be…"

"Zyon is long gone." Krysten said. "If your hoping to see him you'll have to wait till he gets back."

"What do you want with him anyway?" Raven added, before he came to another realization. "Wait, I remember something. Zyon said that he has ran into one of you guys a few times." He looked at Whip. "I'm guessing it's you."

Whip nodded.

"So what happened? Did he hit on you?"

"You might say that." Whip answered.

"I'm not surprised. He does that to all the girls he meets." Krysten sighed. "Please don't kill him."

Whip smiled nervously. "Don't worry. Actually, I'm flattered that he would think that way. Heh heh.."

"Now what seems to have happened here?"

The entire room turned to see Zyon and Irena standing across the hall, the latter taking a swig of the liquor he had brought at the restaurant.

"I see you brought your little friends to interrogate our team, sweetheart." Zyon continued. "A little pre match taunting, perhaps?"

"Sweetheart?" Leona thought to herself. "I think I'm starting to understand what his teammates meant."

"You guys didn't tell the SSC that you were their next opponent, did you?" Irena frowned. Zyon choked on his drink at the news.

The Ikaris looked at each other before nodding.

Irena put a hand to her face and sighed. "You guys suck. Really."

"We're sorry." Leona apologized. "We didn't know…"

"That's alright." Irena sighed. "Well, while you're all here, now is a good time to tell you that your match is tomorrow."

"TOMORROW?!?" Raven, Krysten and Zyon said at the same time. "We just had our match today!"

"The number of people who entered was high this year, so we couldn't really have everyone fighting everyday." Irena said. "Were in the quarterfinals now, so we are going to do it like this: The first two quarterfinal matches are tomorrow, the second two are the day after, the semifinals are the day after that, and after a day's break, the finals."

Zyon rubbed the side of his head a little bit. "Just what I need. More stress." He thought to himself.

"Oh boy, this is going to be good." Ralf said, looking evilly at the newcomers. "We're going to mess you up so bad, they're going to need a scraper to get you off the pavement!"

"Ralf…" Clark warned.

"We'll leave you alone now." Leona said respectfully. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

"Me too." Raven said, before ushering Zyon and Irena in their room, Zyon giving Whip a wave before leaving. Irena gave Whip a smile and mouthed, "It was nice to see you again."

The Ikaris just stood there for a moment. Leona shook her head and walked off, Ralf and Clark following her. Whip took one last glace at the door.

"So Irena's their representative, huh?" She thought. "That's not a good sign."

Whip was worried. Whatever was going to happen at the end of this tournament, she didn't really want Zyon, or any of the SSC for that matter, to get caught up with it.

----------

Shikkoku: BAH! My schedule is all out of wack now that school is back on. So many things to do… (Shakes head sadly.) I could barely write this at time because I was so drained. But hopefully I'm able to get a more faster update time for my stories than 'Once every two months.' Maybe I should stop just focusing on one story at a time and I'll get more work done. Whatever.

Notes:

_I hope the explanation of Zyon's powers can satisfy you, cause I won't be getting anymore into detail about it in this story._

_If you noticed, I changed the dialogue between Zyon and Whip in the last chapter. I thought it kinda messed with how the story would flow. It wouldn't work if the two were so hostile towards each other._

Speaking of Zyon, here's his bio:

_Zyon Tohsaka Kasanari_

_Fighting Style: _

_Birth-date: March 27_

_Age: 17_

_Birthplace: Japan_

_Blood Type: AB_

_Height: 5'11_

_Weight: 136 lb_

_Hobbies: Cooking, checking out pretty girls._

_Favorite Food: Anything he cooks._

_Best Sport: Anything involving speed._

_Most Important: Tera, Xion, A pendent he got from someone along time ago, the suffering of others._

_Dislikes: People who use him, people who hurt his sister, authority, school, etc._

_Zyon Kasanari is a laid back young man. He doesn't really care about things like school or work, all he wants to do is have fun. A bad childhood left him somewhat bitter, but he usually hides it from everyone. He had practiced endlessly to master his various elemental skills, but his base skill is a combination of Chinese Martial Arts and energy attacks._

Even though I would like to get the next Chapter of my other stories as soon as possible, it's probably going to be awhile, since Guilty Gear Accent Core is coming out, and I'm going to be engrossed in that for a while (Hopefully not too long).

Next Chapter: SSC vs. Ikaris. Remember when I said that it wouldn't be pretty? Yeah, it's not.

Until Next Time.


	7. Round 3: SSC vs Ikari Warriors

Disclaimer: SNKPlaymore owns the rights to the KOF Brand and it's respective characters, blah blah blah, I own the OCs, yadda yadda yadda, Enjoy the story.

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The King of Fighters: New Blood

Act 1: Arrival

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

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"Okay, listen. I have some important stuff to talk to you about today's match."

Irena had arranged a team meeting early in the morning. As expected, she was met with groans and grumpy faces. Krysten kept switching between watching her and playing his video game, Xion looked like he was about to fall back asleep and Zyon seemed to be disinterested in whatever she had to say.

She sighed; it was hard being a girl trying to lead a team made entirely of teenage boys.

"Anyway, we kinda have a change in plans." She continued. "My sponsor decided to have a little fun with both teams in this match and decided to buy only one set of plane tickets."

"Uh, then how are we going to get to the area where our quarter final match is set to take place?" Raven asked.

"That's what I need to tell you. You're match is this evening at the airport, and the team that wins gets to get on the plane to the semi-finals."

"So the loser has to stand there and watch the winner fly into the sunset?" Zyon perked up. "Sounds good to me."

"I'm glad to see that there's no problem. I'll see you guys later. I have to go talk to the other team. Zyon, I'll tell Whip that you said hi." She winked at him before leaving.

Krysten sighed. "Your attraction to women is going to be the death of us."

Zyon rolled his eyes. "Krysten, you're just jealous that I'm a magnet for pretty girls, unlike you, who gets scared when one even talks to you directly."

Krysten calmly turned off his game before jumping on Zyon.

Irena shook her head as she heard the sounds of fighting coming from the door. "What am I going to do with them?"

She walked down the various hall ways of their hotel. She didn't really want to lie to the team, but she didn't really want them to know were she was really going either.

---------

Quietly opening the door, Irena took a quick peek outside before she continued. Upon seeing the person she had intended to confront, she gave a small smile.

"I knew you would be here…" She said.

Irena walked towards the brown haired girl that was currently on the roof of the building. Whip didn't turn around to look at the girl.

"Why are you here?" She asked.

"I'm their representative. That's my role in the scheme of things." She shrugged. "I'm not going to do anything evil to them, if that's what you're thinking. "

"So you haven't told them yet?"

"Told them what? The reason for this tournament?" Irena scoffed. "Nobody needs to know for now."

"And if they do make it to the finals, what do you think will happen?"

"I'll deal with that when the time comes. But since we're asking questions, why are _**you**_here? You decide to leave us, and then all of a sudden, I see your face on the tournament listings. What's the deal?"

"Don't play stupid. You know why I left, and there's no reason for me to explain it to you." Whip turned around. "You, of all people, is the last person I expected to still be there."

"I owe them a lot, so I'm not going to leave." Irena she walked towards her. "Unlike you, I don't think only about myself."

Whip only stared at her. "You've always been stubborn, Irena. You should know better."

"I _should _kill you right now, but I guess that the SSC eliminating your team from KOF should suffice for the moment." She smiled, and pinched Whip in the cheek."It was good to see you again, Muchiko. Zyon says hi, by the way."

Whip smacked the girls hand out of her face, but she only laughed lightly before slinking away to the door. All she could do afterwards was stand there as she tapped her head with the handle of her weapon. This was going to be a long day.

---------

By now the SSC had already stopped complaining about their weird fight venues, but it still didn't change the fact that a busy airport was a very ridiculous place to have a battle. The sun was close to setting among the shining city lights, and sitting a ways back was the plane that was prepared to take the winners off to meet their semifinal opponents.

Both teams had been told to pack, obviously, so the SSC were stuck dragging their luggage with them, while the Ikaris had some colleges hold theirs for them at the moment. Irena was busy shooing away spectators, telling them that they can watch the fight inside with a video feed her sponsor set up. Zyon, who the team had decided would go first, was getting warmed up while his Krysten would be the Striker for the match.

"So Zyon," Irena said after getting the crowd to disperse. "What wild power are you going to use this time?"

"Hopefully, none." Zyon jumped around a little. "But if need be, I'll try to stick with lightning, since I have more control over that."

Irena nodded. "Could you promise me one thing?"

"Hmm? Of course. What is it?"

"If you end up facing Whip, please, please don't hold back on her." Irena eyes pleaded with him. "I don't really want you to lose just because you seem to be on good terms."

Zyon smiled. "Don't be so concerned. I like girls, but that doesn't mean I give them a handicap I promise I won't take it easy on Whip-Girl over there."

Irena walked up to him and whispered in his ear, "Thank you." Before kissing him on the cheek. Zyon's face flushed for a second, before he shook it off and continued his warm up routine.

Whip eyed the two across the field with a combination of distain and something else she couldn't put her finger on.

"KILL!"

Whip jumped back to avoid Leona's Moon Slasher.

"Don't get distracted." She said sternly. "If I find you not doing your best, you're going to be spending the rest of this tournament in intensive care."

"Yes Ma'am." She saluted.

After Irena finally got the video feed to the airport working, she assembled both teams before making her usual pre match speech.

"This is the quarterfinal match in The King of Fighters 1999. My name is Irena Toryu, and I will be in charge of calling this match today between the Shin Sekai Chitsujo, and the Ikari Warriors. The winner will face the winner of the earlier match, which I will reveal after the match is over. Will the first two competitors please step forward?" Zyon and Ralf stepped forward. "You should know the rules by now. Try to keep this clean."

"There's nothing that's going to be clean about this match." Ralf grinned. "You're going to wish you never entered this tournament, kid."

Zyon didn't say anything.

_Round 1: Zyon vs. Ralf!_

"GWA! Let's get it on!" Ralf seemed ready for the match.

Zyon reached into his pocket and took out the pendant he always wore. He kissed it before putting it around his neck and under his shirt.

_Fight!_

Ralf immediately went to work, grabbing Zyon by the neck and tossing him in the air. The blonde was caught off guard, so he barely was able to land on his feet.

"He seems ready for action." Zyon thought. "I have to be careful."

"Dark Moon!" Zyon threw his ground based projectile, but he was so far away, that Ralf easily dodged it.

"Hah!" Ralf laughed. "You're going to need to do more than that!"

"Fine then." Zyon replied. In an instant, he was right in front of him, and his foot connected with his face.

"YA! YA! YA!" He continued to kick Ralf three more times, each hit sending both people into the air, before the last kick brought him back down to the ground.

"Didn't expect that, did you?" Zyon taunted as Ralf eased back up.

"RALF KICK!"

Zyon found himself getting knocked a few feet across the field with that surprise attack.

"Shit." He groaned. He tried to get to his feet, but he was quickly tackled back to the ground and battered with punches.

"Here you go!" Ralf shouted over his assault. "Now, one more!" He sent the younger boy sliding across the pavement with his last hit.

Zyon had an even harder time getting up from that one, but he eventually did, and he didn't waver a bit. "You're not done yet."

"Oh yeah?" Ralf leapt up into the air, ready to use the Kyuukouka Bakudan Punch.

"Striker."

All of a sudden, a chain shot up and wrapped around his neck.

"Ochiro!" Krysten pulled on his chain and sent Ralf crashing into the ground. "Are you okay, Zyon?"

"I'll be fine, thanks." Zyon flashed the younger Kirishima a smile. "Now, to end this before he recovers."

Taking a deep breath, he spread his arms apart. He focused his energy towards his hands, and soon, they glowed with a pure white energy. He slid towards Ralf when he was getting up and thrusted his glowing hands forward. Ralf buckled over a bit before falling to the ground, unable to continue.

Irena waited to see if he would get up, and after he didn't announced. "Ralf is obviously unable to continue. Zyon wins the round."

"Hmph." The blond put his hands on his hips. "I clearly overestimated your weakness."

Whip felt a chill go up her spine. She was up next, and by the way he quickly took down Ralf, Zyon was taking every bit of this battle with deadly seriousness.

"_I can't promise that I will not kill you."_

Would he really be willing to go that far? Whip hesitantly walked to the fighting area, her precious weapon in hand. Zyon gave her a reassuring smile, which made her feel a little less anxious. Maybe this won't be as bad as she thought…

_Round 2: Zyon vs. Whip!_

"Are you ready?" She unraveled her weapon. "Because I am!"

_Fight!_

Rather than wait for Zyon to make a move, she immediately struck out her whip, hitting him on his clothed arm.

"Ow!" He rubbed his arm furiously, before the whip hit her in the leg, causing Zyon to hop around on his leg for a few seconds.

The next two minutes was spent with Zyon trying to get past Whip's namesake with little success and a lot of pain.

"I'm going to have marks for days after this is over." He thought while dodging another strike. He had already decided that he would sit out the last battle, even if he won, if his strategy worked. "I need to get closer."

As soon as he saw an opening, he dashed towards her, disappearing only for a second or two before reappearing near the girl.

"Eyah!" Zyon turned his back to her before flipping and kicking Whip in the face and sending her flying. She managed to recover quickly enough that she landed on her feet, and she sent her whip out to wrap around Zyon's neck, and with a quick tug, he was on the ground. She slowly drug him across the unforgiving concrete till he was at her feet.

"No…fair." Zyon lifted his head up a bit, before Whip's foot forced it back down again.

"I told you earlier, my precious Widow wants blood." Whip ground her heel into the back of the boy's head. "And I'm going to give it to her, even if you are cute." She laughed a little as she continued to torture the boy, with the rest of the SSC watching.

"This is just great." Raven muttered. "If he loses this match, I'll have to go against her."

"Zyon must have said something awfully racy to deserve that." Krysten added.

Xion just sighed. "Idiot."

Whip took her foot off the poor blonde's head. Zyon rolled over so he was facing her; his forehead was bleeding from rubbing against the ground and his eyes were dim.

"So, do you accept defeat?" Whip asked. She didn't really want to continue hurting him anymore than already necessary.

"No. I'm still alive, aren't I?" Zyon's hair slowly turned white and his eyes a sharp blue. Without warning, he twisted his body around so his legs took out Whip's and knocked her onto the ground.

"I'm not that easy to beat." Zyon got up. "Don't get cocky, or it'll be the death of you."

"Can it!" Whip said in a voice louder than she had wanted it to be.

Rather than give out a reply, Zyon just swept his hands across his body and launched a insanely fast ball of crackling electricity at her. Whip took it right in the chest, and she fell to one knee as her body throbbed for a few seconds. "You're just a kid, like me. Don't speak to me like you're grown." He took out a cigarette and used his electricity to light it.

Whip was starting to get incensed with his comments. She grabbed Widow and struck out again, but he didn't even bother to dodge it, and it hit his cheek, leaving another mark.

"That really hurts, you know." Zyon said in an even tone, blowing out some smoke. "Stop doing that."

Whip tried again, but in an amazing feat of timing, Zyon caught the end of the weapon.

"You're too easy." Zyon grinned. He quickly jerked his arm back, and Whip was pulled along with her Widow. The boy pulled his other arm back, charged it with electricity and punched the brown haired girl right in the face. The impact nearly made her drop her weapon, and she fell on her knees, clutching her face in pain.

Zyon laughed a little. "I'm sorry." He kneeled down a little. "Let me see your face."

He moved her hands from her face, and saw that she was bleeding. Zyon's face softened a bit. "I guess I went a bit too far.

Whip took the distraction to her advantage, and she struck him with her whip again.

Zyon frowned. "Or maybe I haven't gone far enough." He said, venom dripping from his voice.

With a flash, he disappeared. Whip couldn't believe her eyes. "Did he just teleport somewhere?"

"Up here!"

She looked up just in time for Zyon's foot to land right on her face. He used the force to push himself off of her, then teleported again in the air. He re appeared right next to her, and did a complicated-looking somersault kick, sending her in the air a bit before she hit the ground with a thud.

"Tch, Tch, Tch…" He waved his finger in a mocking way. The girl quickly got up, and before he knew it, her whip was wrapped around his neck once again. Instead of trying to choke him, though, she jumped in the air and returned the favor by kicking him in the face as well. Zyon recovered quickly, and jumped backwards to gain some space.

Whip was getting tired, both emotionally and physically. This wasn't what she expected at all and she blamed herself for not taking this fight seriously enough. At this point she didn't really care if he killed her or not, she just wanted this battle to end quickly. She got up and quickly regained her composure, and prepared for whatever was about to happen.

Zyon's mind, on the other hand, was telling him to get a grip, as he was starting to drift into THAT state of mind again and needed to get back to normal before he 'accidently' kills someone. He took a deep breath and regained some sense of control over his actions. It was really time that he ended this match. He put his cigarette behind his ear for the moment, he needed to get ready.

Whip started to run towards him, trying to use a last ditch attack to catch him off guard and not give him enough time to plan a countermove.

Zyon, however, had already started to charge up his attack. The flow of electricity was starting to increase, and the sparks that would occasionally show up in that form started to multiply.

"Just a little bit longer." He thought, as he pulled back a bit. Whip got closer. "A few more seconds and…" Zyon felt him reach the point he was aiming for. "NOW!"

Before Whip had a chance to comprehend what Zyon was even doing, he had already hit her.

To put it simply, Zyon had charged towards her, teleporting before he could run into her, and reappearing behind her, back in his normal state.

But the large jolt of electricity, however, didn't follow the same course and Whip felt the full force of his attack.

"I can't believe it." Whip dropped her Widow. She didn't seem to move for quite a few seconds before falling to her knees and collapsing to the ground.

"I guess I win." Zyon panted. Attacks like that drained him of energy more quickly than his states usually do. He doubted he could even fight normally for a while.

"Thank goodness…" Irena let out the breath she was holding. "Whip is unable to continue, so Zyon wins the round."

"Ugh…" The boy felt light headed. With his adrenaline gone, all the pain he has been inflicted with was making itself known again. He slowly made his way towards Irena. "I'm opting out of this next match. I'm pretty much out of energy."

Irena smiled. "It's okay. I understand." She turned to Raven. "Raven, Zyon's dropping out of the match, so you're up next."

The older Kirishima grumbled. "Thanks a lot, Zyon." He said, stepping up to the fighting area.

Leona was, in a way, at a disadvantage. Her two teammates had both been taken out by a kid, and now she had to win two straight matches in order to save the Ikari's chances of winning. Even with her skill, it would be difficult.

She went over, got Whip from off the ground, and carried her over to her team's side of the field. "Clark, take care of her for a while, but still be ready for if I call you."

"Yes, Ma'am." Clark sat her down next to a crate.

"You did a better job than I expected." Leona thought to herself. "You managed to hurt the kid enough that he couldn't continue fighting, so it wasn't all in vain. You have my respect."

"Come on! Stop socializing and get to the field!" Irena yelled. "We need to finish this as soon as possible before we start getting complaints from the people in the airport!"

Leona glared at the representative for a moment before walking on the field.

_Round 3: Raven vs. Leona_

"I'm not holding back." Raven said simply.

Leona nodded. "Neither will I."

_Fight!_

Raven threw one of his fireballs at her. Leona managed to use a Moon Slasher to cut the projectile in half, and it faded away before Raven could smack his fist and make it explode.

"Wait, how could she do that without hurting her hand?" Raven said to himself, but didn't have time to dwell on that, as Leona went on the offensive, wanting to get through him as quick as possible.

She performed the Baltic Launcher, and the green energy ball hit Raven in his shoulder a few times. It wasn't too serious since it wasn't his primary arm, but it still really hurt.

"You're not putting up much of a fight." Leona said as she continued to attack. "Were you hoping your friend would do all of the work for you?"

"No!" Raven shouted, not wanting to look weak in front of the Orochi girl. "I just need you to show an opening. Like…" He jammed an elbow into Leona's ribs. "…now, I suppose." He spun around a bit before kicking her in the chest.

"Rekkou!" Raven hit Leona with a flying uppercut. She fell to the ground with a thud.

"Not so confident now, are you?" Raven landed on his feet. But before he could think of his next move, Clark ran in and lifted him on his shoulders. "Hey! Let go of me!"

"Not a chance, kid." Clark gave him a smirk. "Running Three!"

"What?! Krysten! Keep Leona at bay!" He shouted.

Leona got up, a little dazed, but confident. Clark had given her some time to breathe, and to get her wits together again. However, she was too far away to hear Raven call for the striker, so she didn't notice Krysten rushing towards her, and by time she did, his foot was already in her face. Krysten had hit Leona with a very fast combo of punches and kicks before hitting her with a somersault kick, sending her into the air.

"Ochiro!" Krysten brought her back down again, the same way he did Ralf, before leaving.

During this time, Raven was hit with the Running Three, and he was on the ground after being slammed.

Clark had taken notice of the fact that Leona was getting beat up by Krysten, and turned his back to him. Raven took advantage.

"Kiren'eki…" He whispered. He didn't even bother to charge the thing up, he just let it go. It hit Clark in the head, and he fell down to the ground. Raven got up (making sure to step on his body on the way), and rushed toward the fallen Leona.

"Let's hope this works." He thought. Focusing a bit, he formed two sharp, fan-shaped blades of energy in his hands. As soon as Leona got up, he unleashed his attack, slashing and spinning with precision not normally seen from him. Leona felt the blades cut through her skin, and she could do nothing, as it was so fast, Leona couldn't put up a defense.

With one final blow, the blue-haired soldier was sent flying to the ground.

"Leona is out, so Raven wins the round." Irena said happily. "The Shin Sekai Chitsujo wins the round, and will be moving on to the semi-finals."

Raven fell to the ground in relief. "It's over, thank god."

Irena rushed over to him. "I'm happy you won, but we need to get on the plane NOW."

And so, the SSC rushed off to board the plane that would lead them to their next match.

----------

"I see…"

"Yes, sir. They pretty much took out the entire team." Irena was on another part of the plane, talking on the phone to one the main sponsor..

"Hmm. It looks like we have a dark horse in our mist. I would have never imagined it."

"Well, considering their next opponent, I'm not too sure about their chances."

"Who are the opponents they will face next, Irena?"

"Fatal Fury."

"Well, I can see your concern." The man chuckled a bit. "Be sure to keep me informed, okay?"

"Yes sir." The line went dead.

Irena sighed and held her head in her hands. The Ikaris was tough, but, as far as she knew, the SSC was going to need a miracle to get to the finals.

"I'll tell them tomorrow, I guess." She thought, as she started to doze off.

----------

Shikkoku: I did this chapter in twelve days! A new record, LOL…

The fight scene turned out better than I expected. I'm very pleased about how it turned out. Overall, this new writing routine is already starting to pay off. I'm already started on Kurai Tenshi chapter 7…

Notes:

Obviously, the long saga between Zyon and Whip is _far_ from over, but it'll be a while before we return to that. The next chapters are going to be Raven-centric.

Of all three of my stories, this is the one that is closest to being finished. The SSC saga isn't even close to done, however. This act, however, will probably be ending in four or five chapters. Then it's going to be a brief, but important side story, introducing more OCs, (one of which will have an impact on the second Act, another a daughter of a certain KOF Boss whose name is NOT Rose.), a slight crossover with Street Fighter (though it should be obvious if you look at Raven's moveset), and character development! Everybody loves that.

Speaking of which, it's time for the last of the SSC bios…

_Xion Xinlon (or Shinlon, depending on your spelling.)_

_Fighting Style: A hybrid of Chinese Martial Arts_

_Birth-date: February 23_

_Age: 17_

_Birthplace: China_

_Blood Type: O_

_Height: 5'10_

_Weight: 140 lb_

_Hobbies: BMX racing, collecting swords_

_Favorite Food: Anything that doesn't involve him actually cooking. (He can't cook.)_

_Best Sport: BMX_

_Most Important: Zyon, and all of his friends._

_Dislikes: His past, people who look down on him._

_Xion may tend to act uncaring and bored all the time, but he is really a nice person. He's one of the people most loyal to Zyon, who he believes helped turn his life around. Despite his looks, he possesses greater than average strength, and a keen sense of battle. He enters the tournament to keep his skills sharp._

Next Chapter: SSC vs. Fatal Fury. Guess who wins?

Until Next Time…


	8. Round 4: SSC vs Fatal Fury

Shikkoku: SNKP owns KOF.

---

KOF: New Blood

By Shikkoku Kiyoshi

---

By time the plane had landed and they got to their rooms, the SSC were all too exhausted to listen to anything that Irena wanted to say, so she didn't bother. They all just wanted to get some sleep, and so they did. When the morning came, she was starting to get a little nervous. How would they react exactly to facing the Fatal Fury team? She was impressed with her team's performance with the so far, but they had to face Terry Bogard! Unless they could pull another lucky win out of their asses, their chances of winning was somewhere in between zero and negative twenty.

In the mist of her brooding, she heard knocking on the door. It was either one of the SSC or room service was bothering her again. She opened the door and there he was. Raven, wearing that ever-present red and black bandana that was wrapped around his neck, looking like he barely gotten any rest at all.

"Yo. What's going on?" He said sleepily. "Breakfast is starting soon. You should get down there while Zyon is still asleep, or there won't be any food for you left…" He took a closer look at her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…" She said quietly.

Raven blinked. "What's wrong with you?"

"Um…do you think we could have a talk between the two of us for a bit?"

"Sure, I guess." Raven shrugged. "But we should do it during breakfast. I'm starving."

"Alright, alright, let's go." She sighed. "Persistent bastard." Irena thought to herself.

---

When they went downstairs, Irena sat down and watched as the 'leader' of the SSC proceeded to attack the breakfast buffet. By time he was finished, he was balancing about seven plates piled with food.

"Here you go!" Raven managed to keep from spilling it long enough to get the food on the table.

"It looks delicious." The girl said, "But did you leave enough left for everyone else?"

"Yeah, yeah. So what's up? You seem worried. What's wrong?" Raven said as he started to devour his food.

Irena sighed. "I'm really nervous. I got word on who your opponent I'm concerned about your chances."

"You shouldn't be worried. If we lose, we lose. That's it." Raven said. "There's no shame in saying we lost to the best. Besides, considering our standing, it's most likely we'll be back next year, right?"

"Yeah, but you come so far; don't you want to win the whole thing?" Irena asked.

The question was enough to make Raven stop eating. "I never thought of it that way. I wonder what would happen if a team full of random nobodies won the King of Fighters?" He thought for a moment. "How much money are you supposed to be giving the winner?"

"Er…" Irena didn't really know how to answer that. "That is to be announced later. But that's another time. I'm worried about today."

"Well, if you could, wait till we get back to the rooms to tell us our opponent. I wouldn't really want to know before anyone else." The blond teen continued to eat. "We can handle it from there."

"Okay…" Irena felt a _little_ better. He sure did seem confident enough. "I have faith in you. But could you answer another question of mine?"

"Only if you actually start eating." Raven pointed to the meal that the girl barely touched. Irena blushed and started to eat.

"This is quite good." She said. "Anyway, after looking through what little public records you have, I've been wondering…Raven, is it true that you have amnesia?"

The word 'amnesia' emitted a sigh from the boy. "Yeah. It's nothing to be concerned with. I just don't have any memories of my past."

"How sad…"

"I wouldn't call it 'sad'. I just don't remember my past. It's not exactly good, but I don't care. I've already have an identity. I'm Raven Kirishima."

"But don't you want to know who your parents are?"

"Hell no! If I did, I probably wouldn't like them." He frowned. "My brother said that the furthest thing he could remember was that was at some kind of strange hospital-like place. He managed to get out, but I don't even want to think about why they would leave him there, much less what they wanted to do with him." Raven smiled a bit. "But enough about that, ask me another question."

Irena took a second to think. "How long have you known Zyon and Xion?"

"I've known them for a while. We kinda met during a slight 'issue' going on with the area schools. Xion and Zyon had decided to burst into our building unannounced and start beating up random students that looked suspicious."

"Really?"

"Yep. But we worked things out. Xion is a good guy and Zyon, even though he can act like a jerk and somewhat irritating at times, is a very kind person. It was obvious that I had to have them on my team."

"You certainly shown that you can work together well enough." Irena replied. "You'll going to need it."

"Whatever you say…" Raven continued to eat. "Now since I obliged you, why don't you tell me about yourself?"

Irena stopped in the middle of taking another bite of food. Even though she knew the subject would come up eventually, the question still took her off guard.

"Well…There's nothing very interesting about me, I'm just a employee for the head of this tournament. An average girl, as you might think. I like cake and watching TV and fighting games and boys…" She trailed off.

"Go on. Don't cop out on me now." Raven encouraged.

"Everything else will have to remain a secret for now. Knowing you, you'll figure it out eventually." She said before resuming her meal.

Raven didn't really know what she meant, so he could only shrug. He wasn't going to pry into her business at this moment, he needed to get ready for the upcoming battle.

---

"Your next opponents are…"

Once again, the team gathered to hear who they would be facing for their semi-final match. Irena took a deep breath and met their expectant looks.

"… the Fatal Fury team."

"WOO!" Raven threw his arms in the air like he just won a million dollars. "Finally! We get to fight the famous Terry Bogard!"

"Like hell!" Zyon spoke up. "I want to fight Terry Bogard!"

"No way! It's your turn to be striker!" Raven said, before he and Zyon started to argue.

"Isn't anyone worried that these guys will totally kill us?" Krysten muttered, but his question was lost among the yelling.

"It won't be that bad." Xion assured. "If anything, they'll probably underestimate us, and that could give us the advantage. Besides, if we can beat Terry Bogard, then we'll definitely be able to beat whoever is unlucky enough to be in the finals."

Irena giggled a bit at the thought of the SSC reacting to who they most likely will face at the finals. _"If anyone would be doing the underestimating, it would be them."_ She thought.

A few minutes later, after Raven and Zyon stopped arguing long enough for the others to intervene, they all decided to get some rest. Raven, however, decided to go outside. This city wasn't as crowded as the others, so he managed to find a place where he could be by himself. Sighing, he sat down on a bench near a grassy area.

"It looks like I might have to take this seriously." He thought. Not that he didn't take the fights before seriously, but this was the first real fighter he has faced in a while. "If worse comes to worse, I may have to…" Raven ran a hand through his hair and it seemed to leave a long streak of black. It started to spread, and soon, his formerly blond hair was now a dark black. A small laugh escaped from him mouth. "It's been a while since I had to do that. I don't want to get a little rusty."

"Meow…"

Raven concentration was broken by a sound of a cat. Turning his head, he noticed a gray cat currently brushing against his legs. Curious, Raven stuck his hand out, to see if it was friendly. The cat gently licked it for a bit.

"Nice kitty…" He thought. Gently, he picked the cat up and sat it on his lap, where it seemed to be comfortable letting him pet it for a while. "Are you lost?"

The kitten just purred in response. Raven looked to see if anyone would come to claim it, but eventually he realized it was just a stray.

"Well then, I guess it's nice to have some company." He laughed. "Luckily I'm by myself, or Xion would be whining about him being allergic to cats, and we can't have that." Raven leaned back in his seat and stared up at the sky. He was going to need all the rest he could get. It was going to be one long battle.

---

Later that night, the SSC were waiting at a active part of town, full of food stands, shops and people just plain hanging out. They had been wandering around for about an hour and a half. Irena had told them to wait for her there, but she still hadn't arrived. So they just sat around and waited. Xion offered to go get some food at the Chinese stand, and Zyon went off to chat with some of the many female passersby.

"Ugh…" Raven slumped in his seat, which was hard to do since he was sitting on, "What is going on? It's getting late already; where's our opponents?"

"Maybe one of them got injured." Krysten said. "Or they decided to forfeit."

"Why would they forfeit a match against a bunch of kids that have practically no chance of winning to begin with?"

"Because….er….I can't think of anything…"

"Exactly. They're probably doing this on purpose…"

"Or they could just be late." Zyon stated as he sat down with a rather large container of ramen he ordered from one of the stands. "Maybe you should call Irena, she'll probably know."

"Okay, give me your cell phone."

The dark blond gave his friend his phone, who proceeded to dial the number she gave them to call her. After a few rings she picked up.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded very clear on the phone. "Zyon, is something wrong?"

"No, it's Raven, and we're wondering if everything was okay." Raven decided to give the girl the benefit of the doubt. He could hear her make a sound through the phone.

"This traffic is being a real bitch tonight." She muttered. "I had to pick up the other team, there's tons of traffic, and I'm doing everything I can to get here." A loud bang was heard. "And assuming I don't get arrested, I should be here any minute now, okay? I gotta go." She hung up quickly.

"Well, she's on her way there with our opponents. We better start getting ready." Raven got up and try to work the tiredness out of his body. "Krysten, it's your turn to go first. Xion is next, then it's me."

Krysten was somewhat excited. So far, he only got a chance to fight only once in this tournament, but he couldn't help but be a little anxious about his potential opponents.

"Hi guys!" A voice shouted from practically nowhere. Irena rushed toward them, nearly hitting a trashcan that happened to be on fire. "I'm finally here!" She panted. "And I brought the team with me."

"Huh? They're here?" Zyon said through his noodles. A pair of arms wrapped around his neck and he nearly choked.

"You wouldn't think we wouldn't come, did you, Zyon-kun?" A soft voice said.

Zyon could feel his blood run cold. There was only one person that sounded like that…

The other members of the SSC could only watch as Zyon turned beet red from Mai Shiranui's hugging him before trying a futile attempt to get out of her grasp.

"Maybe it was a good idea to let Zyon be striker after all." Krysten thought to himself as Mai finally let the poor boy go.

"Please don't do that…" Zyon coughed. "But it's good to see you again, Mai."

Mai giggled through her fan. "Same to you." She said. "Mary told me about how you beat her the other day, So I was hoping I would inflict some ninja vengeance upon you."

"I'm not fighting this time unfortunately, so you can take out any 'vengeance' on this young lad." Zyon pointed to Krysten. "But don't get too close, he might get a nosebleed and pass out in the middle of the fight."

The younger Kirishima turned as red as Zyon was earlier and looked away in embarrassment.

"That's too bad." The form of Terry Bogard suddenly appeared, causing murmurs from the crowd. "You haven't shown your face at Southtown for a while, so I was wondering how much you've improved."

"Don't worry about that, I'll show you soon enough." Zyon leaned against a wall and continued to eat his ramen.

As Terry went to get between Joe and Andy, who were arguing about something, Irena was trying to shoo the crowd away enough to get a decent space for the two teams to fight.

"Bzzzz! Make some room!" She shouted to the crowd, which was more interested in seeing the legendary fighters. After a few threats, they complied and went back to where they were previously stationed. Satisfied, Irena went to the center to do her usual intro:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the King of Fighters 1999 semifinal round. My name is Irena Toryu , and I will be officiating this match. This match will pit the Shin Sekai Chitsujo against the Fatal Fury Team, the winner of which will face the winner of the other semifinal match two days from now. Will the first members of each team please step forward?"

Krysten and Mai both stepped up.

"You both should know the routine by now. Let's make this a good one."

_Round 1: Krysten vs. Mai!_

Mai pointed his fan at him. "So, are you ready to go?"

Krysten threw two kicks in the air before getting into stance. "Alright, let's do this."

_Fight!_

"Kachou sen!" Mai threw a fan right at the teen, which he easily dodged. Krysten swept his leg across the ground, making her stumble a bit, before performing a spinning back kick that barely missed her. The second one, however, didn't. The back of Krysten's foot hit the side of the ninja girl.

"Hey, that hurt!" Mai said. "Didn't they teach you to take it easy on chicks?"

"Sorry," Krysten said, "But holding back against girls is a sin where I come from." He performed a series of kicks that all hit their target, sending Mai sprawling back. "It's still sort of uncomfortable to me, so please give up quickly."

"No way! I haven't even begun to get serious yet." Mai ran towards him. "Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi!"

Mai tumbled forward and sent a elbow right at Krysten's sternum. As the boy doubled over, he was hit with an uppercut, before Mai threw a barrage of fans at him. They didn't really hurt too much, but it took the boy off focus for a bit.

Krysten shook his head for a moment to regain his senses. He wiped his mouth, but there wasn't any blood on it.

"Looks like I have a fight on my hands now." He laughed a bit. Reaching into his sleeve, he pulled out that all so familiar chain. "I don't really want to do this, but it can't be helped. Sorry."

Before Mai could react, the chain shot out and wrapped around her leg. "EEK! What the….?"

With a tug, she was off her feet in a instant, the chain sending her into the fence on the other side of the alley. If anything, it was enough to give him time to plan his next attack. Krysten got a few feet closer to Mai while she was getting herself back together. He got into a new stance, balancing himself on one leg for a minute before rushing forward and attacking. Each hit was amplified by the fact that he had stored energy in his arms and legs, giving them a little extra attack power.

Thirteen strikes, ending with another spinning kick that sent Mai back into the fenced wall. Still, that wasn't enough to end the match, though she had to jump over him afterwards to get some space.

"Well, I guess I kinda underestimated him a bit." She took the time to get the hair out of her eyes. "I need to focus."

Krysten took to the air, jumping up as high as he could before sharply descending, his foot posed to hit Mai right in the stomach (if he was lucky; Krysten didn't want to know what would happen if it hit her chest). Mai took notice, though. Standing up, she quickly brought her hands together. "Kagerou no Mai!"

The big gout of flames erupted and singed the ends of Krysten's loose clothes, but he didn't change course, the kick going through the fire and hitting her on target (the flames actually helping him add some damage to her).

Mai and Krysten ended up falling onto their backs, but the latter managed to get up first. He rushed towards her as fast as he could. Mai was trying to get herself together when Krysten's foot collided with her head. She crumbled to the ground and didn't get up.

"Ouch…" Irena thought. "Mai is out for the round. Krysten wins."

"Gomen ne." He bowed embarrassedly, though he was happy to have won.

"Andy…" Mai murmured as the younger Bogard assisted her. Now it was Joe Higashi's turn to fight, and he looked as confident as ever, grinning at the boy that nearly kicked Mai's head off.

"Oi, you sure did a number on Mai." He said. "But you're up against Joe Higashi, the greatest fighter in the world! Your little pansy kicks can't hurt the Muay Thai master with the golden legs!" And Joe proceeded to laugh.

Krysten tilted his head to the side a little bit. He could see Andy covering his face while shaking his head. "I guess I'll humor you for a while." Krysten thought to himself. For the most part, he was still able to fight. He just had to make sure that he didn't take too many hits.

_Round 2: Krysten vs. Joe!_

"Saku Saku Ikzue!" Joe pointed at the boy, who just rolled his eyes.

_Fight!_

Krysten instantly leapt at Joe, looking to land a few hits on him, but out of nowhere, Joe's leg shot out and kicked him right in the rib area, sending him flying into some spectators that were watching.

"Well, that pretty much killed that strategy." Krysten thought. It was a pretty hard shot, and now Krysten had to hope he could last long enough to wear him down enough for Xion to take him out.

Getting up, he decided to do a quick assault on him to get as much damage he could before his body gave out. He shot out with a few kicks of his own, and those connected, but he really didn't know if they actually hurt Joe, because he sure didn't look like it.

"Is that all you got? Ha!" Joe grabbed Krysten by the shoulders and proceeded to ram his knee into the young boy's stomach. "Tiger Kick!" Krysten was in the air for a moment before he landed on the ground with a hard thud. He tried to get up, but he was in too much pain to continue. Irena knelt down next to him and tried to make sure he wasn't too hurt.

"Krysten is unable to continue, so Joe Higashi is the winner." She announced, helping the brown haired boy to his feet. He seemed really hurt, but he managed to get to a seat next to Zyon, who was still eating his ramen.

Xion stepped forward, choosing not to make any snappy remarks while Joe was still celebrating his victory. "Don't get too cocky…" He said to himself.

_Round Three: Xion vs. Joe!_

Xion ran a hand through his hair before pulling his hood on.

_Fight!_

Joe got himself focused again, and soon he was on the attack, not allowing Xion to get in any offense. However, most of his hits where blocked by the oldest member of the SSC, who was well aware about the threat Muay Thai could be.

With a bit of good timing, Xion managed to catch Joe's wrist. Pulling him a bit, Xion kicked him in the gut, and when he doubled over, kicked him in the face three times before Joe managed to pull himself out of his grasp.

"Hurricane Upper!" Joe performed his famous move in order to keep Xion at bay. The obsidian haired-boy threw his own Kyoruga and they collided. But since there was two of Joe's projectile as opposed to Xion's one, he only managed to stop the first whirlwind and got hit with the second.

The wind knocked out of him, Xion stumbled back a bit. Joe took advantage of it and hit him with the Bakuretsu Ken. Xion was battered with barrage of fists, and Joe seemed on his way of gaining another victory, until in a flash, Xion disappeared. "What the?"

While Joe stood there confused, the others saw that Xion had reappeared on the other side. Xion couldn't really 'teleport', but he could do a really fast dash that is quicker than the human eye can see. Nonetheless, Xion was right behind Joe, waiting for him to turn around while he edged closer.

The very moment Joe faced him, Xion assaulted him with some punches of his own, finishing with one to the stomach that sent him keeling over before Xion grabbed his hair and drug him back to the middle of the ring.

"Before you decide to call yourself the 'greatest fighter in the world', you should really learn not to underestimate your opponents..." He said after he let go of Joe. "Still…"

"You haven't beat me yet." Joe stood up. "I see that you're not as weak as that other kid. So I'm going to have to get serious now."

"Serious, huh?" Xion gestured to Joe in his usual fashion. "Come on."

"Okay, you asked for it." Joe brought his fist back.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines…

"Is it just me or is Xion about to make a huge mistake?" Raven said.

"I'm pretty sure that Xio-kun knows what he's doing." Zyon said.

"SCREW UPPER!"

A massive whirlwind suddenly formed, causing most of the spectators to scatter. Joe had put most of his power into it to make sure it could travel a good distance. Xion saw this and he already had a counter. Summoning all the energy he could muster into his hands, he brought them to his side.

"Houshin Renha…" He said quietly before he launched the attack.

Both attacks charged at each other, but instead of canceling out, the Renha just went through the Screw Upper. Joe knew that and he would have dodged, but something suddenly grabbed his arms from the back and wouldn't let him move.

"Hey! Let go!" Joe struggled.

"No can do, Joe." It was Zyon that was behind him, forcing Joe to watch as the giant energy projectile rushed towards him. The moment it actually hit, Zyon pushed Joe into it and disappeared before he got caught.

Xion however, in his attack, didn't have the time to move out of the way, so he just let Joe's attack hit him. When the dust settled, both men where on the ground. Joe was KO'ed, Xion was conscious, but the attack took way more out of him than he had expected. It would be possible for him to continue, but Xion knew that there was no chance he could last long enough to do any credible damage to Terry Bogard.

"Uh…Xion?" Irena asked. "Are you alright? Will you be able to continue?"

"I don't think so…" Xion sat up. His body was genuinely sore. "I'm out, I guess."

Irena nodded. "We have a double KO situation here. So both Joe and Xion are out." She announced, trying to hide her concern for her team. If Raven lost this last match, the SSC were out of the tournament.

Raven, who had been at Krysten's side for most of the match, walked forward to meet Terry Bogard. Even the older man had a smile on his face, the teenage fighter couldn't help but gulp in his presence. Raven felt that he was no where near Terry's level. If he couldn't pull off a spectacular upset, his team's chances where as good as dead.

"Hey kid," Terry said cheerfully. "Don't be so nervous! This is going to be a good match."

"Of course you would say that…" Raven muttered. "You're going to win."

"Who knows? I might lose this one. It's happened before. Just try your best." Terry did a few practice punches.

_Final Round: Raven vs. Terry!_

The younger boy sighed, but got into position. "Whatever happens is your own fault."

_FIGHT!_

Raven didn't know whether to rush towards Terry or wait for him to make a move so he could counter it, but settled eventually to dash towards him and show Terry that he meant business. He leapt to the air ready to kick him, but Terry dodged it and threw a kick of his own, which got dodged as well.

Raven didn't want to let his guard down for a second, so he attacked often (a few of which actually hit Terry), but when one of his kicks got blocked, he got a fist to the chest, courtesy of the Legendary Wolf. The teen got the wind knocked out of him, but recovered fast enough to see the punch headed towards his face. Quickly, Raven changed his stance into a defensive one, caught the punch and flipped Terry right on his back.

"Uh-oh. Looks like you're in trouble." Raven grinned as Terry got back up. "If that's all you got, then…"

"BURN KNUCKLE!" Terry's infamous attack hit Raven right in the face and sent him to the ground. Raven quickly rolled to his feet to see his opponent adjusting his gloves.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" He said. "Hurry up!"

The boy could only grit his teeth in frustration. He ran right towards him and tried to do his Rekkou, but Terry swayed past it, hit him with a Rising Tackle and he was back on the ground again.

"Or it seems like I'm the one getting careless." He thought. "I keep making careless mistakes, so either I try to plan my strategy out, or I can use Kakusei and get a boost."

Raven decided that he should try to fight it out just a bit more before he could use his secret (but unperfected and unstable) technique. Fireballs wouldn't work, so he had to try something else to soften him up so he try and use the Kiren'eki and finish the match.

He caught Terry of guard with a kick, then used that to hit him with a rapid punch technique that ended with a palm to the chest, knocking him back a bit before Raven spun around and hit him with a sweep that knocked him down. He knew he couldn't charge the Kiren'eki long enough with only that, but he had an idea.

"Zyon!" Raven said. "I need you to hold him off as long as you can while I charge the Kiren'eki."

Zyon grinned. "Gladly."

Terry noticed that Zyon had gotten up and was running towards him, and as a safeguard, he called his brother to try to intervene. Zyon was focused on Terry, so he didn't see Andy go up in the air and drop down, elbow pointed right at him. He was only a few feet from Terry when the attack hit him. It wasn't hard, but it was enough to stop any attack that he was planning to do.

"Shit! He would have to call his brother!" Zyon thought. Raven sighed as he charged his attack. He didn't expect Andy, but since Terry was occupied with him and Zyon, he was able to go unnoticed.

Zyon recovered enough to catch the kick that Andy usually followed his Gen'ei Shiranui with, and using his momentum, he tossed him right into his brother, knocking them both down.

"Damn…" Terry muttered as he got up. "Are you alright, Andy?"

"I'm fine. You took most of the force, after all." His brother replied. But as Terry got up, he noticed the Kiren'eki that was forming. "Terry, look--!" But it was too late. Raven released the projectile, and it hit Terry dead on, sending him back a few feet.

Raven let out his held breath. His plan actually worked! And now Terry was down for the count, and…Wait, was he getting up?

"Woo, that was a doozy. You almost had me there for a second." The Legendary Wolf said, dusting off his pants with his cap. "That was a cool attack. What do you call it?"

"Kiren'eki." Raven said flatly. "And by all intents and purposes, you should have been knocked out by it."

"I guess it just needed a little more 'oomph', as they say."

The teen's irritation started to grow. The Kiren'eki was one of his favorite moves, and Terry practically no-sold it. At this point, he really wanted to use Kakusei, but he wasn't going to bet the fight on a technique that wasn't really that reliable to begin with, so he opted for the energy fans. After he formed them with his hands, he started to run as fast as he could.

"I don't really want to do this…" Terry said as he raised his hand. Raven saw this, but he kept running. If he tried hard enough he could stop his attack.

"Power…."

Just a little bit closer…

"…Geyser!"

Raven could have sworn that he was close enough to hit him, but then the geyser hit, and everything went white, then black.

---

The first thing that Raven could see after that was Zyon talking to Terry about the match. Zyon looked over at him.

"So, I see you're finally awake." A female voice said. Raven moved his head slowly up and saw the smiling face of Irena. Apparently, his head was on her lap. "I'm glad you're okay."

"So, did we lose?" He said.

"You did lose, sadly." She shook her head. "But the important thing is that you came close to winning, and because of that, you are considered the third place winner."

"Does that mean we still get money?" He grinned. Irena rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you still get money." She said. "So, do you think you can move?"

"It still hurts a bit, but I can get up." He slowly got to his feet, "Is Krysten alright?"

"He's moving around, but he's still hurting. Xion and Zyon look fine though." Irena replied. "We should get going." But Raven was already staggering towards Terry and Zyon.

"Terry…I have to hand it to you, you are the first real fight I had in a _long_ time." He said. "If anything, you made this whole thing worth it."

"I'm glad to see that you don't hold a grudge against me." Terry replied.

"Well, it was kinda my mistake to begin with. But, next time…" Raven eyes seemed to have a slight glow in them. "…I will beat you."

Zyon rolled his eyes. "Sure you will. You said the same thing to me when I beat you, and it still hasn't happened yet."

Raven glared at him. "That's because you're too damn complicated to work a strategy around!"

"Really? Are you sure it's not the fact that you get frustrated when you can't beat someone in five minutes like most of your opponents?"

Xion and Krysten looked away in embarrassment as their teammates started to argue, while Irena started to giggle again.

---

"So they finally lost, huh?" Krizalid said as he looked on the monitor. "Well, considering the strength of the team they faced, I'm not surprised really. So, did K' and Maxima win?"

"Yes sir. They will be facing the Fatal Fury Team at our designated spot."

"Excellent. Now in a few days, our plan will come to motion…"

---

Shikkoku: That's right, the story isn't dead, and neither am I. Rather than come up with a whole bunch of crappy excuses, I'm just going to apologize for the wait and leave it at that. After all, since the story is more or less close to completion, I'm going to try and finish the next few chapters off quick after I update the other story (Kurai Tenshi especially.)

Notes:

-I'm pretty sure you were all expecting the SSC to win, weren't you?

-I had a difficult time in how I wanted the fight to progress. I didn't want Terry to thrash the SSC, but I didn't want the SSC to thrash the Fatal Fury team either. That's part of what took so long; the SSC losing was planned since the very beginning, but I wasn't sure how to do it without making them look too strong or their opponents too weak.

-Anyway, it's getting close to the end of the story, but there's still a little bit more. You probably can guess who's Irena working for, but I wasn't really trying to make it a big secret anyway. I'm still deciding how involved will the SSC get into the whole 'Kyo Clone' situation…

Next Chapter: Irena leaves the team at the hotel suddenly, and in an attempt to follow her, the SSC end up getting themselves into a pickle.

Until Next Time….


	9. Empty NESTS Syndrome

Disclaimer! I do not own any of the KOF related you see here. I am just borrowing their characters and plots to use as my personal puppets for a while…

---

KOF: New Blood

Chapter 9: Empty NESTS Syndrome

---

Once again, the SSC went to their rooms. Though there was a slight air of disappointment, it was overwhelmed by a sense of pride of their accomplishments. That and they were too damn tired to care about such stuff at this moment. It was the middle of the night when they got back, and all everyone wanted to do was sleep.

It was early that next morning that Irena was awoken to the sound of her phone vibrating. She knew that could only mean it was time for her to go and call the final round of the tournament. Sighing, she turned off the phone and got up. It was way too early for the rest of the Shin Sekai Chitsujo to be awake. With her team out of the tournament, all she could do was provide them with the means to go back home.

"I hate having to do this to them." She held her face in her hands. The sad fact was that she probably wouldn't see them again. It hadn't been but a short time ago that Irena happened to run across Raven and his brother at the mall in the middle of her search. Over that time, she had grown close to all of them; Krysten's shyness and determination, Zyon's boastful but kind attitude, Xion's strength and willingness to fight through anything……and Raven…

"My job has to be done." She got up and stretched for a bit. "Unfortunately, my loyalty to my organization is more important to my loyalty to my team."

Quickly, she washed herself and got dressed. It took her only a half hour to pack her stuff up, and in no time, she was ready to leave. Irena wanted so much to knock on the doors of the guys and tell them that she was leaving, but it was important that she get there early to make the final adjustments to her boss's grand plan for the tournament. So, taking some paper from the table next to her bed, she scribbled down a note. Irena left her room and slipped it under the door of the room that the Kirishima's were currently sleeping in. She could feel herself starting to tear up, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Goodbye..." She placed her hand on the door in front of her, letting it linger for a moment before she continued down the hallway.

---

A few hours later, Raven was awoken to the sounds of knocking.

"Wakey wakey…." Zyon said through the door. "Breakfast is ready, but I can't seem to get Irena to come out of her room."

"Just let her sleep. I'm pretty sure she's was just as exhausted as the rest of us." Raven said. "We'll bring her some food up for when she wakes…." Raven noticed the piece of paper near the door with Irena's name on it. "Actually, it looks like she has left us a note." He commented as he let Zyon in the room.

Zyon picked up the paper, and scanned through it quickly. After a moment, he handed it to Raven. "You probably should read this."

Raven gave Zyon a confused look, but read anyway:

_Hey guys. I'm really, really sorry that I can't be there to see you off, but important business with my sponsor came up earlier than I have hoped. I kinda promised them I would oversee the final match in the tournament taking place tomorrow. Believe me, I want to stay and have at least one last day with you._

_There is something I want to leave you with, however. I know that most of you probably feel bitter about losing yesterday. You shouldn't be angry yourself; you fought a very good fight against the Fatal Fury team. I'm sure you would agree with me that you almost won the match, and considering that team's reputation, that is something you can be proud of._

_Anyway, I've informed the hotel to hand you your plane tickets on the way out. It should be leaving this evening, giving you enough time for you to enjoy the town one last time before you go back home. I don't really know how things will turn out next year, but as far as I'm concerned, you should come back. But I don't know if I'll be there to cheer you on if that happens. If that's the case, then I will miss you dearly. I certainly wish you the best. – Irena._

"So this is how it ends?" Raven said to himself as he re-read the note. While Raven was thankful that she didn't just up and leave without telling anyone, the fact that their time with her ended so abruptly irked him a little bit.

"Well, what can we do?" Zyon shrugged. "Our run in the tournament is dead and buried. She's our representative, but she's also an employee of the sponsor. We can't forget that."

"Yeah, you're right. But when you think about it…" Raven scratched his head. "We never did learn who that 'sponsor' is."

"Knowing the history of this tournament, it's probably someone evil person who's using the tournament for his or her evil means. They never are successful, though."

"Aren't you at least curious?" Raven continued. "I mean, for all we know, she could be in danger…."

"Of what? Getting fired because we lost? Come on, man." Zyon shook his head. "Listen, I understand that you have sort of a 'thing' for this girl, but we shouldn't really be getting involved in whatever she or her 'sponsor' is planning."

Raven knew that Zyon was right. What could he do? Nobody knew where the finals where taking place at, and at this point, even if they did, by time they managed to find the place, the match would be over and she would be gone. He needed to get his head together…wait a minute…

"Did you just say I had a 'thing' for Irena?" Raven said angrily.

"Wow…does it usually take that long to process words in your brain?" Zyon said. "I was just joking."

"Hmph. Whatever you say."

"If it makes any difference, I kinda wanted to give our girl something for her trouble before she left, so I'm not feeling too good about this either. I would like to see her again too, of course, but who knows where she'll be…" Zyon smiled. "It'll be okay. Despite what she says, we'll see her again."

"I guess you're right about that." Raven sighed. He was getting hungry, and every moment standing there was time that could have been spent gorging on free food. "Do you think we should wake the others?"

"If they were really hungry, they would be up by now." Zyon said as he made his way down the hall. "Now get dressed and be down there or there won't be enough left for you."

"We'll see about that!" Raven shouted, completely ignoring the other people that were still sleeping in their rooms.

---

After causing a mess of the breakfast station, the entire SSC decided to go out and wander around town until it was time for them to leave. After a short trip to the mall, they more or less walked around for the next hour or so, occasionally stopping for a store one of them wanted to go in. Raven had spotted the cat from yesterday wandering around somewhere, so he had separated from the group to go chase it around for a bit.

"This sucks." Krysten spoke up. "We've been walking around for a while, and there's not a thing to do around here."

"I guess all the good things happen at night." Xion added. "But by that time, we'll be already on our way home."

"Speaking of home, I wonder how our friends going to react when we tell them we fought the Fatal Fury team." Raven inquired.

"Considering what school I'm in, they probably wouldn't be too surprised." Zyon looked around the area. "Their star student is a pop star psychic, after all."

"Don't half the underclassmen at your school worship you, Zyon?" Xion asked.

"And all of them are girls, not surprisingly." Krysten added.

"Well, when you finally get over your inherent inability to have social contact with women, you'll find that you have a few fans as well." Zyon snickered while Krysten gave him a dirty look.

About a good while after that, Krysten and Xion had disappeared into a random store, the former bugging the latter about buying him some kind of item as a souvenir, as he had done with every stop they had made. Zyon was left waiting for his teammates to come back.

"Hey Zyon!" The smiling form of Terry Bogard appeared from the corner. "Looks like you're still here. Where are the other guys at?"

"Who knows?" Zyon replied. "Just aimlessly wandering around, as usual. This town is pretty boring during the day."

"I wouldn't say it's boring, but things are a bit livelier at night from what I saw." Terry looked around a bit. It was during that sentence that a thought came to Zyon's mind.

"Hey, have you heard about where you're going to be fighting at next?" He suddenly asked.

"Hmm…now that you mention it, we did get word where the final match will be held an hour ago. It's at some kind of abandoned area in the middle of nowhere."

"I shouldn't be surprised that it's being held at such a ridiculous place." Zyon frowned a bit. Terry gave a small laugh.

"You get used to it, after a while. Anyway, it's a pretty long drive from here to there, so we'll be leaving tomorrow. "

Zyon nodded. "Well, thanks for the info, Terry. I need to go find where the others had run off to."

"No problem. Remember, next time you're in Southtown, we're going to have a rematch, okay?"

"Sure thing." Zyon said as he broke into a run.

It didn't take long for him to find Raven walking towards him, cat in his arms. It was a humorous sight to see.

"Sorry about that, Zyon. This was one hard cat to try and keep still." Raven commented. The cat seemed to have taken a liking for him and followed the two as they walked.

"Listen. I just talked to Terry, and he told me that the final match is taking place quite a while from here, and that they're leaving tomorrow."

"So, why are you telling me this?"

"I have a feeling that we _should_ try to see her again." Zyon said. "My intuition is bugging me, and I know everyone else could say the same thing."

Raven perked up a little. "Really? How are we going to get to the fighting area?"

"We're going to tail the Fatal Fury team, of course." Zyon gave his 'I got this covered' smile, which usually meant something strange was about to happen.

"And how are we going to follow them? We don't have a car."

"Leave that to me. Our main concern right now is the fact that we'll need some place to stay for one more night." Zyon stated. It was technically almost time for them to pack up their stuff and get ready to go home, and trying to make a deal with the staff to get an extra day for free was almost out of the question.

"Maybe we should wait till we talk about this with the others to worry about that." Raven pointed to the store where Krysten and Xion were coming out of.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Zyon grimaced at the thought of their response.

---

Irena drove for about two hours down a very long stretch of road. It was a little boring, but it gave her time to clear her head. She still had quite a bit of stuff to prepare for, and she needed to focus on that for the time being.

She pulled up to what seemed to be an abandoned building. After parking her car, she went up to the door, which was locked with a keypad. Pressing in the special 5 digit code, Irena unlocked the door and walked into the surprisingly active building. Being out in the middle of nowhere, it would have been unlikely to arouse suspicion unless you were stupid enough to try and sneak on the property, but nobody had ever made it in and out without getting some part of their body blown to pieces and them bleeding to death on the ground.

The inside of the building was very active. After a few flight of steps, she arrived at the main area. Various screens and monitors were placed on the walls, showing maps and data and stuff that Irena sometimes had difficulty understanding. There were several people stationed at various desks and sections of the large room doing whatever work that was assigned, from filing reports to calling this and that group. Everyone had their part to play, but Irena couldn't say she envied them.

Past that place was a door that led to a hallway lined with smaller offices, for meetings and stuff. But the main room she needed to go to was still a few floors down. She quickly hurried to the elevator, and after another set of identity verification stuff that Irena hated to do, it slowly started to go down.

Finally, after a few minutes of mindless waiting, Irena finally reached her destination. The door opened to a dark room filled with various screens. A man was seated in front of them, but his back was turned to her.

"Good evening, Irena." The man said without turning around. "It's been a while since I have seen you in person."

"Krizalid, I've come to give you my assistance." She said as she stepped closer. "Now that my first assignment is over, I'm ready to help out in any way I can in the final phase of the plan."

"Ah, yes. It's getting close to time for our big 'reveal'." The man stood up, his silhouette standing out against the bright screens behind him. "To your credit, however, your team was very impressive. From what I have seen, their Battle Ability was almost on par with some of the more experienced teams."

Irena couldn't help but smile. "I did the research, of course. I wouldn't waste your time just putting some random nobodies in an important program like this."

"And you did a very good job. It's a shame though, I would have liked to see how well they would have interacted with K' in the finals."

"Speaking of which, how is our boy, K'? I can't seem to contact him."

"Stubborn as always. Don't worry; he knows where to go when the time comes." Krizalid's form slowly started to move towards Irena. Most of his face was covered by the collar of the huge trenchcoat he wore. "One more thing before you leave; you have talked to my sister, right?"

"Briefly, yes. She doesn't seem to have any intention on ever rejoining the organization." She said with a slight hint of regret.

He sighed as he held a hand to his head. "I don't know what it is going to take to try to convince her. She should learn to listen to her brother."

Irena opted to stay quiet about the subject. "So, is there anything I can do?"

The man placed his hand on top of her head. "A few things, but nothing too complicated. I need you at your best for tomorrow. Don't overwork yourself."

The girl turned a red in the face. "Yes sir."

---

The SSC went out to lunch, where Zyon and Raven explained the entire situation to Xion and Krysten, and gave them what little of their plan that they have managed to cobble together.

"We're going to purposely miss our flight home and follow another team for two or so hours just because you want to talk to our rep?" Xion was upset. He wasn't comfortable leaving his home for that long, so he really wanted to go back to Japan. "Have you lost your minds?"

"If I had a dollar for every time you said that…" Zyon said to himself. "She's part of this team as much as the rest of us. I know it's seems like this is just some kind of random act of stupidity on my part, and believe me, you're probably used to them, but I know for sure that there's something going on behind the scenes involving her."

"Raven, you're not going to go along with this, are you?" Krysten was almost begging his brother to say no. "I wanna go home…"

"Krysten, I know that. I want to go home too, but this is something that will be eating away in the back of my mind for all of eternity if I don't. She just left so….abruptly. At the very least, I want to part ways on something other than a letter."

"Well if you want to get yourself in serious trouble, that's your problem. We'll be going home." Xion said, but Zyon just smiled smugly.

"I doubt it, Xio-kun. I took our plane tickets and burned them to ashes." He stated matter-of-factly. Xion gave him the darkest look that he could. Krysten put his head in his hands in frustration. "Don't worry about getting home; I had my sister wire me some money over here to buy some new tickets once we're done."

"Fine. So what do we do? We don't have a car, or a place to stay for the night."

"I can get another, albeit less extravagant, hotel room for us. And as for the car, I already got that covered, as I said." Zyon said. "Speaking of which, you better get your stuff from the hotel. I need to go get our ride." He quickly left the diner.

It was an hour later that the SSC packed their bags and left the hotel for good. Outside the hotel, they waited for their friend to return. Xion still looked kinda peeved, while Raven and Krysten were just tired of people that were walking in the hotel looking at them.

Suddenly, a car pulled up in front of them. Zyon's head peeked from the other side of the car.

"I think we can fit our stuff in this one." He said as he opened the trunk. "Let's get out of here."

So the SSC loaded their stuff in and soon they were driving away.

"So, where did you get the car, Zyon?" Krysten reluctantly asked.

"Well…." He tried to figure out how exactly to word it. "You'll be surprised how a little electric shock can screw up a car's power locks."

It took the others a few seconds for them to get what Zyon was trying to say.

"Wait, you mean you stole this car?!" Krysten panicked.

"Well, 'stole' is such a harsh way of putting it. After all, this car was already abandoned to begin with." Zyon said, trying to keep Krysten from jumping out of the car in a panic. "It just needed a new battery and some 'power' to get it to start up. Granted, I could have easily stolen a car, but since we're probably going to be driving this on a public road for almost two or three hours straight, having police on our tail wouldn't be proactive to our situation, would it?"

"I guess not…" Krysten slouched in his seat, somewhat relieved. "Something tells us that tomorrow is going to be a long day."

"Maybe…but assuming that we don't wind up dead by the end of the day tomorrow, it's going to be well worth it."

"You say that, but you and Raven still haven't come up with an actual plan." Xion said.

"To be honest, I have one actually forming together right now, but of course, I'll need everyone's input." Zyon did a sharp turn. "I'm supposing you'll be assisting us, right?"

"Only because I don't want to have to explain to Tera why her brother got herself killed." He sighed. "As your best friend, I'm obligated to go with you; And Krysten is obligated to go with Raven since he is his brother, so we don't really have much of a choice."

"'Obligated' being the key word." Krysten said under his breath.

"Don't be like that. I already said that I won't let anyone hurt you." Raven turned around to give his little brother a comforting smile.

"And if Irena is truly a part of our team, we're obligated to help her right?" Zyon continued. "So let's stop arguing and take the time to get some rest. We'll probably have to do some serious battling tomorrow."

Raven could only nod his head in agreement. It's was going to be quite the eventful day tomorrow.

Unbeknownst to them, the SSC's role in the final day of the King of Fighters tournament was going to be a little bigger than they had expected.

---

Shikkoku: Besides the fact that I completed this whole chapter in little more than a week, there's nothing really notable to talk about on this chapter. I'm in for the long haul until this story is over, so don't worry about any more long gaps between updates right now.

Notes:

This chapter is primarily a transitional chapter, a way to get them into the main plot of the tournament. It took me about 3 days to figure out a reasonable explanation of them getting involved in the 'Kyo Clone' plan, and I still might improve on that one.

Speaking of Kyo, he'll be making an appearance shortly. He's my favorite character, there's no way I could leave him out. Iori, however, probably won't be seen till the still unnamed Act 2. Probably.

Next Chapter: The SSC go forth with their hastily put together plan. What exactly is Irena's role? Who is this mysterious boss (like you don't already know), and why is Whip following them?

Until Next Time, Sayonara.


	10. 70599 Ways

Disclaimer: All KOF and KOF-related things are property of SNKPlaymore. I only own the rights to the OC's that are present in this story.

---

KOF: New Blood - Act 1

Chapter 10: 70599 Ways to kill a clone…

---

After hours of making preparations, reading reports, checking the statuses of units all around the world and dying her hair a light shade of green, Irena was so exhausted, she went to sleep earlier than usual. A good ten hours of rest later, she grudgingly got up for what hoped to be a world-changing day. Stripping out of her usual sleepwear, she immediately stepped into the shower. She let the hot water run down her body for a while, aptly noticing the left over dye that was seeping from her hair. Suddenly, the familiar ring of her phone reached her ears.

Pushing the curtain out of the way, Irena quickly put it on speaker. "Hello?"

"Good morning, Irena." The familiar voice of her boss said. "I see you actually managed to get up for once without having someone bang on the door for five minutes."

"Ha ha ha…." Irena laughed sarcastically as she started to wash her hair.

"I assume that you are going to be ready to take part in the final round soon?"

"Yes, sir. This is what everything so far has been leading up to, right?"

"Exactly. Speaking of which, give me a status report."

The girl stopped a moment to try and recall all of the information she gathered yesterday. "Let's see….units are in place near all our target areas, they are ready to take out our 'men' as soon as you give approval. I'll be leaving shortly to go retrieve the Fatal Fury team from their hotel, and we should be ready to start the final round by the late afternoon."

"Excellent….wait, what is that noise in the background?"

"I'm in the shower, talking to you through speakerphone." She stated as she started washing herself. "I'll be ready to leave in a few minutes."

"In that case, I'll leave you to get ready." The voice said before he hung up. Irena quickly finished with her washing and left the shower, followed by a thorough tooth brushing. After quickly putting on her outfit, she grabbed all her necessary stuff and left the room.

She went past the main part of the building (the office) and walked down a few sets of steps till she got to a medium sized garage. Standing there waiting for her was Krizalid. The sight of him stopped Irena in her tracks.

"Uh, sir?" She said hesitantly. "Is there something wrong?"

The taller man just laughed a bit. "No, Irena. I just wanted to tell you a few things before you leave…there's the chance that my dear sister will be 'joining us' in our little endeavor." He said, crossing his arms. "If that happens, I want to confront her myself."

Irena frowned. "I don't know if I can do that without dealing with her myself."

"I know that you have some sort of grudge against her, but this is something I have to deal with on my own."

Irena nodded. "Okay. You have my word I won't get involved."

"Thank you. I appreciate your hard work." Krizalid smiled underneath the huge coat he was often seen with. "Hopefully this operation will be quick and painless. When this is all over, I'll let you hang out with your new friends for a while, as a reward for your hard work." He patted her on the head.

The though of being able to see the SSC again made her smile. "Thank you, sir. I will promise you that I won't disappoint." She gave her boss a quick hug before running off.

Krizalid watched her get into the large van and speed off, before turning around and retreating back to the building. He needed to get himself ready for what was certainly going to be a big event.

---

It took a good hour for the SSC to find the place where the Fatal Fury team was staying at, and even after they found it, the four teens were stuck with the unenviable task of sitting there and waiting for them to leave for the match.

So, for the next two hours, the SSC sat there in the car that Zyon had stolen. Raven was put on charge of looking out for any signs of movement, Zyon and Xion had both fallen asleep and Krysten was playing video games, per usual.

"_Maybe this wasn't a smart idea after all." _Raven thought. _"Sitting in a car for two hours was__** not**__ what I had in mind when we agreed to this."_

"You know, we've probably look very suspicious sitting at the same place for 2 hours straight." Krysten commented.

"Zyon said that if anybody asks about us, we say that we're waiting on someone."

"For two hours?"

"It's possible. In either case, there's no point in worrying about that." Raven caught view of something pulling up to the front of the hotel. "I see a car!" He quickly shook Zyon, startling him awake.

"Er-huh? What's going on?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before taking a look. "A car? Plenty of cars come to pick people up. Do you see something particular about it?"

"Probably that green-haired girl coming out of the car, for one thing." Raven replied.

They both looked on as Irena stepped out of her car. She was dressed rather extravagantly, with a skirt and a long blouse adorning her figure.

Zyon blinked. "I'm guessing that's Irena…..did you say her hair is GREEN now?"

"I guess so. Must have dyed it again after she left." Raven grimaced. "That's not the greatest color for her. Kinda makes her look like a cartoon character."

"Come on, it's not as bad as you think." Zyon said. "Anyway, it looks like she's going to get Terry and the others."

"It certainly took her a good while to get here; it's almost 2 in the afternoon." Krysten said from the back of the car. "I bet by time we get to the wherever they're fighting at, it'll be dark."

"That's just something we will have to deal with, little brother." Raven shook Xion a little to get him back to conscious. "Xion, wake up. We'll be leaving any moment now."

Xion yawned. "Took her long enough," he mumbled.

After a few more minutes, Irena returned to the car with Terry and the rest of the team in tow. Even from their car, the SSC could hear the enthusiastic voices as they entered the car. As it started to pull out of the lot, Xion quickly put the car into gear.

"HEY! We can't just follow them!" Zyon quickly said before Xion blew their cover. "This will be a long ride, and if she sees that the same car has been behind her for all that time, she'll get suspicious. I already got directions of where she'll be going, so we need to wait a few minutes before we actually start tailing the car."

"Wait, how am I supposed to know where to go?" Xion asked.

"I took the map from our hotel room." Zyon said, showing his friend the folded paper in his hand.

Not bothering to comment on the theft, Xion waited about ten minutes before finally driving in the direction Irena went. "Am I going to have to drive the whole way?"

"You're the only one with a license, Xio-kun." The electricity/flame user relaxed in his seat. "Don't worry; it'll only be for three hours…at the least."

Xion shook his head and wondered if he should have just gone home.

---

Tera Kasanari was lying around the house in a fit of boredom. She didn't usually like to mope around all day, but without her brother, things were a little dull lately.

Zyon hadn't called her in more than a day, which was unusual for him, since he would usually take every opportunity to check up on his sister. The last time he talked to her, he was just about to fight in his semifinal round match. Needless to say she was a little worried. Being all by herself was a pretty big risk on its own; if word got out that Tera had been left home alone, her brother would be in trouble with several people who would probably end up removing her from his custody. Zyon had gotten one of his friends to check up on her on a daily basis, so she wasn't alone most of the day, but it was still very lonely being in the house.

"Well, there's no use in worrying about that all day. Maybe I'll stay over Kristal's place tonight." She said to herself as she got up and stretched whatever kinks she had. Kristal, her closest friend, had been spending most of her time over there, trying to keep her company. "Speaking of which, it's almost time to go meet her at the mall."

Tera got herself ready to leave, and after a quick check in the mirror, left the place which they called home. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice the helicopters flying over the city. She did take note, however, that there were a line large trucks passing by her. It was a strange sight to see, since this part of town wasn't the type of place that such vehicles would have been present. They kinda looked like army trucks, and that kind of disconcerting to her. What were they doing here? Could they be connected to that tournament? Was her brother in danger?

Tera frowned at the thought of Zyon being in any real danger. He always seemed to be able to get out of bad situations, but this, of course, was different than getting targeted by some angry gang, or committing an act of vandalism on someone's property. This was an infamous tournament full of unstable and violent fighters who wouldn't bat an eye at the idea of murdering a seventeen-year-old boy.

"NO! Don't even let that thought go through your head!"

Tera knew that she was getting a bit too paranoid. If those strange trucks were indeed part of that tournament, why would they be all the way here? If Zyon and the others were in the area, he would have certainly have let her know.

"I certainly hope things are going well for you, Zyonii." She said to no one in particular. "Please, stay safe, at least for your sister's sake."

---

Meanwhile, at the location of the final battle, Whip was hiding out somewhere amongst the shadows. It was a long way from the city; everything had a sort of barren quality to it. A long stretch of water, which stretched from the treatment plant from way back in the city to its merging point with another river, separated what seemed to be some kind of factory like building on one side, from a cliffy region on the other, which had a path leading down to the bottom.

She was waiting at a bridge that went across the water, just listlessly staring at the reflection while they waited for someone to come so they can start their surveillance. After that fight, she suffered some light wounds, but other than the incredible pain of electricity shooting though her body, she was okay for the most part.

Whip, though she probably wouldn't admit it to anyone, kinda hoped that the SSC won their semifinal match so she could at least apologize to Zyon for being such a pain during their fight. She didn't want things to end on such a sour note. Placing her head on the railing, she felt the pain from the metal touching the still sore part of her body, but she didn't cringe.

"Whip, reports say that the vehicle carrying the Fatal Fury team is on our way." Leona said as she passed by her, but noticing the glum look on her face, she stopped. "What's eating you?"

The brown haired girl just turned to look at her. "Nothing Ma'am. I'm just lost in thought." She straightened up. "When do you suppose they'll be here?"

"In another hour or so, give or take." Leona stated. "Whatever plot is behind this tournament will probably be revealed after this last match."

"_And that's what bothering me."_ Whip thought to herself. _"I need to stop worrying and get myself ready for my inevitable reunion with him…"_

"Is everything okay?"

"Yep! Everything is fine." Whip gave Leona her most confident smile. There was no need to get her teammates worried over her.

Leona apparently got the idea, so she just nodded. "Follow me; I need to show you where you and the guys need to keep watch at." She left, and Whip, getting her mind to focus one again on her mission, followed her.

---

Zyon, surprisingly, was right about the trip taking a little more than 3 hours to make. By that time, the SSC had been in the car for five hours straight (not counting a brief period where they had to stop for gas). They had to follow Irena's car from a distance, and because of that, they lost her a few times, but managed to keep up.

Trying to keep the four kids occupied for this trip was another matter. At first they had just listened to the radio till the signal to most of the good stations had faded out. Krysten had his games that he played all the time to keep him busy, but Raven and Zyon spent the rest of the ride either arguing about stuff, eating the food that Raven was kind enough to buy for the trip, and harassing other drivers (with Raven spitting out the window and watching it hit other cars and Zyon either screaming insults in Japanese or making obscene gestures to passing cars in order to try and provoke a reaction). Xion's constant complaints that those actions would probably get them arrested and/or caught by the driver they were pursuing fell on deaf ears for most of the ride, and if it wasn't for the fact that they would lose time, he was tempted to pull over and give the two a methodical pounding.

Finally, they arrived at an area that looked like some kind of abandoned factory. Because it would have been a risk to drive through, Xion parked his car at a space near the other side of the bridge. Hidden from sight, they kept watch as she exited the car with Terry and co. in tow.

"That had to be the most boring ride I've ever took part in." Xion placed his head on the steering wheel in exhaustion. "And the fact I'll have to do this again makes it even worse."

"Don't forget that it'll be in the middle of the night, if we're lucky." Zyon stated, "But like I said, the hard part is over. Now, all we have to do is wait and see where Irena and the other's go."

---

"You'll have to forgive me. This path can get kinda confusing."

Irena hurried across the empty factory with the Fatal Fury team trailing behind her. They had parked rather far, so they had to walk all the way back to where the bridge was, but instead of crossing it, they went down the slope that led to the stream of water, which was surprisingly shallow.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Mai spoke up. "You're not leading us into some kind of trap, are you?"

"Don't worry, miss." Irena said. "I have no reason to mislead you. Just follow me, we're almost there."

They kept walking till they reached a tunnel that stuck out of the side of a wall. Upon entering, they realized that they were in some kind of underground sewer. Surprisingly, it was lit up with lights that were placed on the wall, so they weren't exactly walking blind. Trudging their way through the increasingly dirty water, Irena started to get very irritated.

"_My favorite boots are getting ruined…"_ She thought to himself, _"Lousy organization couldn't think of a better place to hold a fight. Krizalid better pay me some good money to replace these…"_

Fortunately, it wasn't long before they reached the main area. There wasn't much to it. There was a pipe that water was flowing out of it sticking out of the side, and it was just big enough for both teams to fight in, and speaking of which…

"I see that the other team had already made it."

Standing there, waiting for the other team, was the slightly unusual team that consisted of the two other newcomers to the tournament, the white-haired named K' and the massive fighter known as Maxima, and the veterans, tournament regular Benimaru Nikaido and Shingo Yabuki.

"Look who it is…" K' smirked. "I guess you need something to do since your job of being those losers' cheerleader is over."

"And it's nice to see you too, K'!" Irena said cheerily, hiding her obvious anger of having her team being called 'losers', "I see you are just as insolent and stubborn as ever."

"Ah…I never knew you were friends with such a lovely girl." Benimaru said slyly, "Is there something I don't know?"

"She is NOT my friend!!" The white-haired fighter snarled, giving him the harshest look he could muster.

Benimaru laughed nervously and stepped back a few paces. "I was just kidding."

Irena stifled a giggle. _"Okay, it's time to get down to business." _She thought. "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Final match for the King of Fighters 1999. My name, of course, is Irena Toryu, and I will be officiating for the final time. This match will pit the Fatal Fury team against…..er, what's your team's name again?"

"We're the Japan Team, of course." Benimaru answered.

"Benimaru-san, I don't think that K' or Maxima are Japanese…" Shingo corrected.

"In that case, what about the Benimaru team?" The blond retorted.

"Because I'm the leader of this team, not you." K' interrupted.

"Uh…excuse me; I'm the most experienced member of this team. Besides, why would you want to lead the team if you didn't want to be in the tournament to begin with?"

"Because they placed you with us, so since I had to carry your asses throughout this whole tournament, I should be the leader."

"That's it…." Lighting sparked from Benimaru's body. "Looks like you need a little lesson in respecting your superiors…"

K' simply put his glasses away and got into stance.

"Hey! Stop it you two!" Irena shouted, causing both fighters to stop in their tracks. "Calm down. This is the last fight of the tournament, there's no reason for the team to fall apart now, K'," She said sternly. "The match is about to start, so get ready."

Both fighters hesitantly relented.

"Alright then…despite the fact that you don't have a real team name, you'll be facing the Fatal Fury team. The winner of which will win the tournament and go down to meet our sponsor, in order to receive your 'prize'. Will the first fighters for each team please step forward?" Andy and Benimaru were the ones to do so. "Alright. Since you got this far, there's no need to go over things with either of you." She took a deep breath, calming her nerves a bit, before she proceeded to initiate the final match.

_Round 1: Andy vs. Benimaru!_

…Neither of the teams knew what awaited the winner of this fight….

_Fight!_

---

The SSC had been keeping lookout for Irena. Since they couldn't disrupt the final round of the tournament, they decided to hide right under the bridge, where they got a good look at the tunnel where the team went into. Alas, they had no option to sit there and wait.

"This fucking sucks!" Zyon shouted. "We've been sitting here for a half hour and nothing has happened! What's taking them so long to have a fight?!"

"Calm down, Zyon." Raven said. "Do you really think it would be better if we just rush in there during the middle of a battle? Think for a bit. We just have to wait a bit longer."

Zyon just crossed his arms and started to mutter.

Needless to say they were all bored. Three and a half hours of driving followed by a half hour of waiting wasn't the thing they had in mind when Zyon and Raven first came up with this plan. Krysten probably wouldn't say anything, but Xion was irritated beyond belief. What was he thinking when he agreed to go along with this stupid plan?

"_All of this because Raven has a crush on her…."_ The hooded boy thought to himself. _"He and Zyon are both going to owe me big for this."_

Minutes passed by, and by that time everyone was starting to get restless, obviously. The sun was starting to set right behind them, and at this pace they would be driving back to the city in the middle of the night, which Xion obviously _wasn't_ looking forward to. Zyon was trying to get a good signal in which he could call his sister, but it seemed all in vain.

All of a sudden, the tunnel was illuminated by a bright light, of which it quickly faded. The SSC looked at each other, wondering if that was a sign that the fight was over…

---

"Congratulations!" Irena cheered. "You've just won the King of Fighters tournament!"

K' stood over a fallen Terry Bogard, an arrogant smirk on his face. "So I did. What happens now?"

"Hold on, hold on." Irena said. "There's no need to rush things."

Benimaru, in an attempt to separate himself from his condescending teammates, helped Terry up. "You'll have to forgive him…he doesn't exactly have the best attitude towards people," He stated, "Me and Shingo kinda got stuck with him."

"I heard that!"

"Oh, it's no problem. You face one guy like that, you face them all." Terry didn't let his loss get to him. "You just be careful when you meet whoever this 'sponsor' is."

"Believe me; I'm well aware what we're walking into." Benimaru frowned. "But if history has taught us anything, that by the end of the day, everything will be absolutely fine….hopefully." He still couldn't help but be reminded of the fact that Kyo had been missing for nearly 2 years now, but this wasn't the time to think about that.

"Okay, Fatal Fury Team, you did a great job." Irena announced. "I wish you luck in the future, but now I need to show the winners the way to our sponsor. Could you step aside for a bit?"

The team moved over to the side. Irena went to the panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons, and a steel platform slid out from the side of the wall.

"Everybody hop on the floor." She said, and K''s team stepped on to the platform. The floor below the platform opened up to reveal another tunnel below. "Alright, we're going down. Don't worry Terry; someone is there to take you back to the city…"

The platform started to descend, and Irena gave the Fatal Fury team a final wave before they disappeared into the floor.

---

The very moment Terry and his friends emerged from the tunnel, the SSC jumped up and proceeded to make their way towards them.

"TERRY! What happened?" Zyon said once he got a good look at the fighter's battered look. "They really did a number on you, did they?"

"Yeah…these guys are no joke, man. But what are you doing here? I thought you were going back home?"

"That's what I'm asking myself…" Xion sighed.

"We need to see Irena. Has she gone with the others?"

"That girl? She and the guys went underground on some sort of elevator thingy…" Mai answered. "They're going to see the big boss of this tournament."

"Boss? That's not a good sign…" Raven said to himself. Without warning, he broke into a run towards the tunnel.

"Raven?!" Krysten shouted as he started to follow him. "Wait! You don't even know where you're going!"

Zyon laughed. "Poor boy has a hopeless crush on that girl. I have to go catch him…" Zyon followed after the two, with Xion hesitantly backing him up.

"Don't you think we should stop them?" Andy worried about their safety, but Mai just wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled.

"I think this is one of those things that only fate can decide, Andy…"

---

"What the hell…." Leona said as she spotted the SSC running into the tunnel. "Whip, are you seeing this?"

Her fellow soldier, who was in the mist of dozing off after hours of surveillance, snapped out of her daze fast enough to see the team running into the tunnel. "What the….why are they still in the area?"

"I don't know… they could possibly be tailing the team who won that match."

"Can we get Ralf and Clark to try and intercept them?"

"The commander said that he lost contact with the two after they found another entrance on the other side of those buildings." Leona replied.

Whip couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh of frustration. Why…why was the SSC getting involved in this? That was the _last_ thing she wanted to happen. Now they were just about to get themselves killed, and it was probably because of Irena too. "Captain, you have to let me go after them…"

Leona looked at her with a confused expression for a while. "Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes…this is something I need to do. Please, Leona…"

"If that is what you think is the right thing to do, then I will allow you to do that." Leona said. "Hurry up, or you'll lose them."

"Thank you, ma'am…" She got up and rushed down the hill to follow them, but half way there, Whip realized that if they were going where she think they were going, then they'll probably have to wait for the elevator to come back up. What would she do then? The situation would be too awkward for her to manage. Thankfully, she knew there was more than one way to get in there….

---

Raven and the rest of the SSC rushed down the sewer tunnel, but by time they made it to the end, all they had to show for it was a bunch of water. Where was the elevator?

"So we're going to have to wait here for an elevator to come back up?" Xion panted. "Isn't there another way we can get down there?"

Raven took a glance at the surroundings. There was a path past the place they were currently at, but they didn't know where it headed. They could wait for the elevator and take the safe route, but they didn't know when (or if, for that matter) it was coming back up.

"Wait; there could be an emergency route in case the elevator got disabled or something." Zyon reasoned. "And if there's one, it's probably up further ahead."

"So we're going to just take your word for it?" Krysten said.

"Unless you want to wait here by yourself, you are going to have to." Zyon started on the path ahead. With no other choice, the others followed him, and soon they were wandering down paths that all looked the same. That was until they ran across a doorway. Unfortunately, it required a pass of some sort for the door to open.

"Don't worry. Leave it to me." Zyon gave the keypad a little jolt of electricity, and soon, they had access to some sort of stairway. But waiting for them at the bottom of the steps was more tunnels for them to traverse. They had just decided on which way to go when…

"Either I'm crazy, or there's someone else here with us." Krysten whispered.

"Lucky guess…"

A figure emerged from one of the connecting tunnels. It took a moment, but the man looked all too familiar. The brown hair, the headband, the school uniform with that all too familiar insignia on his back and those gloves…they could only belong to one person:

"Kyo Kusanagi…." Zyon couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"The one and only." The figure grinned. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We could ask the same of you." Raven stated. "Why are you wandering around in a place like this?"

"Nothing much. I'm just making sure that no one intrudes on our boss' big event."

"Event? What kind of event? Is it some kind of winner's party?" Krysten mused

"No, idiot. He meant that whoever is running this show is about to reveal his true intentions for the tournament, just like they do almost every year."

"If that's the case, then why is Kyo not letting us stop him?"

"I have my reasons…" The figure answered. "In fact, I'll give you one right now, just so you'll know what I'm talking about."

Kyo then motioned his head a bit. At that moment someone else emerged from the tunnel that looked almost like a perfect replica of Kyo.

"What's this? So, we have some visitors, I see…" He said to the first one. "Kyo-1, looks like we're going to have some fun after all."

"Guess you're right, Kyo-2. Let's show these wimps what we're made of."

The SSC just stood there, confused beyond belief. Of all the things they were expecting out of this, having to fight two doubles of Kyo Kusanagi was somewhere in the lower part of that list.

"What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?" Raven whispered to Zyon, but all he could do was shake his head; he had no way to describe what he was seeing.

"Are they supposed to be robots or something?" Krysten said apprehensively.

"I don't know. But it doesn't look like we will be going any further until we fight them." Xion pulled his hood over his head and got ready to fight."

"I'll have to agree with Xio-kun. The advantage is still ours, so let's dispose of these…uh…things and get it over with." Zyon added. "The sooner we deal with this, the sooner we can be on our way."

Raven smirked and got ready for the inevitable battle. "Right. It looks like our fight hasn't ended for us, after all."

---

Shikkoku: Hope you liked this one. At this point, I'd say that there will be about 3 or 4 more chapters before this story comes to an end.

Notes:

There_ will_ be a fight between the clones and the SSC, but it'll probably be brief. They are merely there as a means to involve the SSC into this whole mess.

I went and touched up some of the earlier chapters, but they're mostly small errors and stuff. The only real difference is that Chapter 7's fight scene between Zyon and Whip was made slightly longer.

Irena's character will be expanded upon a little bit next time, but nothing too big will be revealed, as that is being saved for Act 2.

I recommend that you guys get King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match. It's one of the best versions of the game I've played so far, along with XI. Anyway, depending on how things go for the next few weeks, the next chapter should hopefully take less time to come out. No promises, though, as always.

_Next Chapter: The SSC deals with the Kyo clones, but when they finally find Irena, what will their reaction be when Irena finally reveals the true purpose of the tournament? And what will happen when they confront Krizalid?_

Until Next Time, Sayonara…


	11. Dear Fallen Angel

Disclaimer: All KOF and KOF-related things are property of SNKPlaymore. I only own the rights to the OC's that are present in this story.

---

KOF: New Blood - Act 1

Chapter 11: Dear Fallen Angel…

---

Irena, K' and the others stood there as the platform continued its voyage to who-knows-where. After descending for a few minutes, it had started moving straight ahead through a dark tunnel, which unlike the others, didn't have much in the way of illumination.

"Maxima, can you tell how far down this girl has taken us?" K' groaned.

"I can't give you an exact estimate, but we're about 80 feet underground." The massive man behind him answered.

"What kind of person would make a lair that far down?" Benimaru exclaimed. "If this place collapses, and it probably will, how will we get out?"

"That shouldn't be an issue. There are emergency exits all over the area for quick use in the event someone tries to blow this place up." Irena sat on the edge of the platform while she was talking.

"Why would someone want to blow us up?"

"Oh, various reasons…" She trailed off a bit. "I recommend you get ready, because we're almost here."

In minutes, the platform came to a rather abrupt halt in front of a steel door.

"70599…" K' read the numbers that were imprinted on the door. "What the hell is this?"

"It's our destination, of course. Site vector 70599." Irena said. A few seconds later, the door slowly started to rise. "Well, this is what you've been waiting for…"

Waiting behind the door was a room seemingly made of nothing but machinery. The floor consisted of a design which looked more like a circuit board than a pattern, and it lit up every so often with red lights that seemed to move across the floor. In fact, there were red lights almost all over the room, flashing and blinking along with the various devices. Standing in the middle of the room was Krizalid himself, looking very pleased with what he saw.

"Krizalid, I brought the winning team over here to start the final part of our plan." Irena announced as she and the rest of the group got off the platform.

The mysterious sponsor nodded in approval. "Good job, Irena."

"Ugh…this is the person who is running this tournament?" Benimaru said to himself. "What kind of person would fight in such a terrible outfit?"

"Welcome. As you know, I am the sponsor of this contest. Obviously, as the winners of the tournament, you have gained the right to fight me." The glow of the room gave Krizalid's form an evil hue.

Before either Shingo or Benimaru was able to speak up and ask if Krizalid had any fighting ability (because he sure didn't look like he did), K' stepped up. "So you're our final opponent…If that's the case, why don't you stop with all this courtesy bullshit and show me what you got."

"Damn it, K'!" Irena scolded. "Shut the hell up!"

"No, it's alright." Krizalid assured. "It's best that we get this over with as soon as possible." The sole female in the room just sighed and moved to the side as he continued, "Now then, let the match begin."

"What? Just like that?" Shingo said in a panicked tone.

"I guess. Sorry Shingo, but it looks like we can't say no to this fight." Benimaru shook his head.

"Don't you two get your panties in a bunch. This will be over in a matter of minutes." K' got into his stance.

Krizalid just laughed.

---

A good ways from Site 70599, the SSC were being forced into a confrontation with the two Kyos that had mysteriously appeared. Once again, it seemed that they needed to come up with some kind of plan. Luckily, Raven managed to conjure up one really quick.

"Krysten and I will take one of these guys, and you two can take the other." He quickly said.

"Wait; wouldn't it be a better idea just to gang up on them all at once?" Krysten said.

"Just trust me on this."

And with that, the SSC charged towards the Kyo clones with no real solid strategy in mind. Raven and Krysten took on one clone, while Zyon and Xion fought the other.

Things didn't seem to be going the way that they expected, however. The Kyos were seemingly just as tough as the real one, and teaming up on one of them didn't seem to be doing anything at all.

"Hya!" Raven threw a high kick. Kyo-1 managed to duck, and Raven's foot nearly hit his brother right in the face. Krysten stumbled back, making himself open for a quick Oboroguruma from the clone. Raven quickly sent an elbow to the clone's back, making him stumble a bit. He turned around for a quick roundhouse that was blocked by Raven, but while he recovered, Krysten had snuck up behind him and wrapped his chain around the clone's neck.

"Look's like we have ourselves a new punching bag, bro." Raven grinned before laying some heavy shots on to the clone. Kyo-1 lifted his feet and kicked Raven away before grabbing Krysten by the arm and throwing him right into his brother.

Zyon and Xion was having slightly better luck, primarily because the latter had landed a kick to Kyo-2's head that was throwing off his equilibrium, causing him to have difficulty maintaining a steady offense.

"Hold still!" Kyo-2 shouted as Zyon and Xion continued to dodge his attacks. "Kurae!"

Zyon just missed the Dokugami that was thrown by Kyo-2, but when he dodged, he noticed something strange. Whereas most of the time there was a burst of flame that accompanied the punch, all Kyo-2 could muster was a few sparks.

"_No flames? Now that's really weird…." _Zyon thought, but then he got an idea…. "Hold on for a second!" He said suddenly.

"Huh…what? What's going on?" Kyo-2 was confused.

"You can't make flames, can you?" Zyon stated plainly.

"What? Have you lost your mind? I'm Kyo Kusanagi! Of course I can make flames!"

"Well, I haven't seen any since we started fighting, so you obviously can't. All I'm seeing are sparks."

"Why you…" Kyo-2 started to seethe.

"Come to think about it," Xion added, "I don't remember that other Kyo using any flame attacks either."

"Hey!" Kyo-1 turned to them, causing him to lose focus and get himself hit with a Rekkou, courtesy of Raven.

"You can't do it, _can you?_" Zyon continued to test the clone's nerves, "Someone modeled after the great Kyo Kusanagi can't even make flames! How pathetic…"

"_SHUT UP!"_ Kyo-2 roared, causing the other clone and the Kirishima's to stop fighting. "You wanna see some fire? I'll show you fire!"

"_Zyon, what the hell are you doing?" _Xion thought to himself. "_You're going to get us killed!"_

Kyo-2 attempted to summon the flames, but he looked like he was straining to do so. Sweat was forming on his forehead as the first flickers of actual flame started to appear.

Zyon let out a long yawn. "That's it? All you can make is a few flickers of flames after all of that effort?" He pointed at the few specks of flame that was on the clone's hand. "For someone who's supposed to be a Kusanagi, you sure do suck at it."

None of the other members of the SSC bothered to mention that Zyon couldn't make flames at will, either.

His words dug at the clone's psyche, and he pushed harder to get the flames to appear in his hand. Focusing every bit of his energy, a small flame formed in the palm of his gloved hand.

"Ha! You see? Revel before the flames of the Kusanagi!" Kyo-2 gloated, bringing his hand forward so Zyon could see. It was a flame all right, but it was a small one.

"That's good, but…" Zyon put one of his gloves on, before placing his hand over the flame, "It's kinda small, isn't it? Not very threatening if you ask me. Now this…" The heat of the fire was just enough to ignite his own blue flames, but unlike the clone, it was larger, nearly engulfing his whole hand. "…That is what I was expecting."

All Zyon got was a growl from Kyo-2 as he attempted to make the flame bigger. But as it grew, the clone looked more and more strained as he put more emphasis into trying to outdo the blond teen. Finally, it started to grow in size, soon engulfing his hand as well.

"Is that enough for you, smart guy?" He panted, tired from putting forth all that effort.

"You managed to make them appear in both hands at the same time; that's impressive." Zyon replied, pointing to the fact that Kyo-2's other hand was on fire as well.

"What?" Kyo-2 never intended for _that_ to happen. He tried to put them out, but nothing happened. He waved his hand around a bit, but all that managed to do was make it even worse. Now it was to the point that both of his lower arms were completely ablaze. "I…I can't make it stop!"

"Of course you can't. You're not the _real_ Kyo Kusanagi, stupid."

"Sh-shut up….I'm….better than him…" Kyo-2 spat, though that was far from the case. Whoever made him neglected to compensate for the amount of training needed to use the power; without that, anyone else would either be unable to wield any flames whatsoever or, in the unfortunate case of the clone, they would be overcome by them.

With a loud wail, Kyo-2's body suddenly burst into flames. His body started to run around in a last ditch effort to get them to die out, but they were too powerful to control anymore, and he eventually fell to the ground while the flames proceeded to burn him to death.

Everyone else was completely silent for a moment while their minds tried to comprehend what happened.

"Was this the plan, Zyon?" Xion couldn't help but question his friend, "To bait him into losing control of his own powers?"

"Ehhhh, not really. I was just intending on getting him too riled up to focus and make him easier to beat. The fact that he ended up doing an impression of the Human Torch is just a nice little bonus for us."

"What happened, did his circuits overload or something?" Krysten stared at the still flaming body.

"Judging by the smell of burning flesh that's filling the room, I don't think that's a robot." Zyon went towards the burning corpse and used the heat to ignite his own flames a bit more. He turned to Kyo-1, "What are you supposed to be?"

"That's my secret and mine alone." Kyo-1 refused to be cordial to the person who caused his partner to die. "If you want the truth, you'll need to beat it out of me…"

"And considering that it's four-on-one now, I guess a beating is what you're about to receive." Raven cracked his knuckles. "We'll see how big of a smartass you are after we put you in a coma."

"Pfft. I'm Kyo Kusanagi." Kyo-1 refused to let his ego get deflated. "I can beat all of you with my hand behind my…."

"_Kyoruga!"_

The dragon-head projectile hit him right in the small of the back, cutting his boasting short, and leaving him open to a kick from Krysten that snapped his head back in a way that the human body is not supposed to experience.

"Kirien'eki…" Raven's projectile was full strength and knocked what little wind the clone had left.

"Die…" Finally, Zyon, still in flame mode, gave Kyo-1 four hard series of punches, the last one letting off a small explosion of fire that KO'ed him instantly.

"Whoa…did we just do a team-up technique?" Raven was surprised on how fluidly the whole scene was.

"Uh…yeah, I think we did." Zyon replied before noticing the clone's hand was ablaze even though he was unconscious. "Uh-oh. Looks like he's about to flame up like the other one."

"We've wasted enough time. We need to find Irena." Raven announced, "The tunnels that those…things came out of might lead us to her."

---

"Hmph. You're the worst opponent I've ever faced."

K' looked down on Krizalid who was kneeling on the ground. Their fight was a bit long, but K' was able to get the upper hand and come out on top.

"So was this some kind of joke? Or are you some kind of minion for the real mastermind behind this thing?" K' said smugly as he crossed his arms.

"Of course not. This is only the beginning." He suddenly asked. "Irena, is it done yet?"

"Yes, sir. The battle data has been completely downloaded into your system." Irena checked the information that showed in her phone. "There's nothing abnormal as far as I can tell. You are now able to continue with the plan"

"Battle data? Downloads? What in the hell?" Benimaru groaned. "Now I'm fighting computer nerds now? This really blows."

"I think now is the time to explain what's going on." Krizalid stood to his full height. "My name is Krizalid, my associate, Irena Toryu and I, have been using your battle data in order to activate our brand-new weapons."

K' and his team looked at him with looks of confusion on their faces.

"What's going on?" Maxima questioned. "I thought this was just a test of our abilities."

"And it was. But it was also a ruse to gather up data on some of the strongest fighters in the world and see who was worthy enough to participate in our plan. And judging by our current situation, I would say I did a pretty damn good job of doing both."

"So what are you going to do with us?" Shingo interjected, trying not to sound nervous.

"Well, if you give me the opportunity, I shall enlighten you." A monitor with a map of the world suddenly appeared behind him. "During our last battle, my special suit downloaded the data into the machines which surround you currently. They also downloaded data from the match you had earlier, so it has more than enough for us to use."

"Use for what?"

"To go to our new weapons, as I said before. But it's not the kind that you're thinking of…" The screen behind him suddenly went to a camera image inside one of the many helicopters that was stationed all around the world. Sitting in rows on either side of the room were men wearing dark combat gear. Men that looked almost identical to Kyo Kusanagi.

If it wasn't for the loud machinery humming around them, one would have probably heard the sound of the jaws of Shingo and Benimaru hit the floor.

Krizalid smirked. "I take it that you're impressed, right?"

---

Meanwhile, Whip was trying to find her way around the underground base. 'Trying' being the key word. Even though she knew how to get in the tunnels, she didn't really have the greatest grasp of how to actually get to Point 70599. Every tunnel looked almost exactly like the last one, and that led to her back tracking constantly, running (literally) into dead ends, and seemingly passing by the same place over and over and over….

"I hate this place…" She growled as she made her way around a corner for the twenty-third time. "The very moment I see that bastard I'm going to blow his miserable head off."

At that moment, Whip started to notice a faint smell in the air.

"_It smells like smoke…" _She thought. _"There must be a fire of some sort. Wait…Fire? That could only mean one thing!"_

She rushed towards the direction of the smell, it getting stronger and stronger by the second. Whip couldn't help but wonder if Zyon had something to do with it…

When she finally found the source of the odor, all she was greeted with was the sight of two burnt corpses, one smoldering, the other was still on fire. She let out a small yelp before quickly covering her mouth, embarrassed for being so easily scared.

After regaining her composure, Whip took a look at the body that wasn't currently burning like a dry bush. She nudged it a bit with the toe of her boot, but part of it crumbled to ashes upon contact. The only things she could make out were a sun emblem and a burnt leather glove. It didn't take her long to figure out what was going on.

"_So that's the thing he's been doing for the past year and a half…" _She instantly thought, _"If that's the case, I need to hurry up and find those guys."_

Part of her wanted to radio Leona to report her findings, but at this depth, the signal would be too weak. Whip had no other choice but to continue to try and locate them. She didn't

---

"They all look like Kusanagi-san…" Shingo was the first one to regain his voices after seeing the image, "But…but how?"

"Isn't it obvious? They're robots!" K' causally stated.

"They're not robots, K'. They're clones." Krizalid interrupted.

Benimaru looked doubtful. "Clones? Is that even possible?"

"It is with our technology. We have the power to accomplish things that most scientists and companies can only dream of."

"Even so, is how did you get his DNA?"

"Well, that part is more complicated. Most of the data we gathered is based on Kyo's participation in '97 tournament that Kagura woman sponsored two years ago, right up till that 'incident' at the finals where he supposedly 'disappeared'. The information we got from that would have been more than enough to work with, but soon after that, we happened to come across the unconscious form of your friend. Needless to say, an opportunity arose for us."

"So you are the ones who have Kyo?" Benimaru voice took a threatening tone. "What have you done with him?"

"I wouldn't worry about that. Kyo escaped from us a while ago, and destroyed one of our bases in the process. But by then we had already started work on the clones." The monitor changed back to the world map, parts of it marked with red dots. "You see those dots on the screen? Each one represents a unit of clones placed in a major city. We have them scattered all over the world, waiting for our signal."

"Signal? What are they supposed to be doing?"

"They will help us seize those cities, overpowering any defenses and allowing our organization to take over with relative ease."

"Feh. If that was all you needed, then what was the point of this whole tournament?" K' asked. "Besides making me look good, that is."

"Heh heh heh…it was a lure, just like all of the other tournaments were. But more importantly it was a way to gather some of the best fighters in the world to determine who was strong enough to help us accomplish our goals. Because we knew that Benimaru was looking for two more fighters to team with him, we decided to place him with you two. I knew that you were going to go far, but you exceeded even my expectations. Then again, I wouldn't expect anything less from my own clone."

For the first time in the whole tournament, K' looked genuinely shocked. "WHAT?!?"

"What? You don't think so? Well now, tell me this….do you remember anything about your past? Your parents? Your friends? Your childhood? Anything?" The frustrated expression on the face of K' was all the response Krizalid needed. "You can't do, can you?"

"Shut up…." He growled.

"I thought so. You're a clone, just like all of the others. The only difference is that you're cloned from me, rather than Kyo Kusanagi. It's a rather tough pill to swallow, isn't it?"

"I said SHUT UP!" K' roared. It was enough to silence everyone else.

Irena looked up, and K''s eyes instantly locked on hers. She could tell that he wasn't very happy.

"You knew about this, didn't you?" He accused.

"Well……..yeah, I kinda did." Irena could do nothing but smile nervously and scratch the back of her head. "I'm sorry, K', but I couldn't…"

The next thing she knew, there was a ball of fire heading straight at her. She quickly jumped out of the way, leaving it to singe part of her shirt. "Son of a….!"

"Leave Irena out of this K'." Krizalid warned. "She was ordered not to reveal it to you till the time's right, so there's no reason to blame her."

K' just crossed his arms and turned his attention back to Krizalid. Irena muttered profanities under her breath while she went over the damage to her clothes.

"K' and Maxima, You two have done well, and now you have one last order." Krizalid said, "I need you and the others to help create the trigger data."

"Trigger Data?" Everyone else repeated.

"The 'Killer Instinct', as some may put it. That's the thing that will activate the clones, but it's important for another reason. The Kyo clones are perfect replications of the original. Their attacks, their mannerisms, even their speech is exactly like Kyo Kusanagi. The problem comes with the actual flames itself. It takes a lot of skill and effort to use and control those flames, and because the clones lack the rigorous training needed to wield them properly, most of them can't even make a single spark."

"So in other words, they all fight like Shingo?" Benimaru snickered.

"Benimaru-san, that was mean…"

"As I was saying…It is possible for the clones to produce the fire with time and effort, but even then, they lack the ability to control them, and eventually all of them ended up being burned alive with their own flames. Some of them even exploded because of it. Trigger data will enhance their bodies to which they will be able to use them with relative ease. And you're going to help us do that?"

"What makes you think I'm going to do that?"

"What, besides the face that I'm your boss?" Krizalid teased. "You can benefit from it too. We all know that you can wield the flames without killing yourself, but you can barely control them without that special glove. If you help me, I assure you that you'll never need that thing again..."

"SCREW YOU!" K' shouted. "I don't need you or anyone else's help. I do things on my own!"

There was a long pause before Krizalid sighed. "If that's what you're going to do…I guess I have to create that data myself. Irena, please keep watch outside just incase we have 'visitors'."

"Yes sir…" Irena stepped out of view.

Krizalid snapped his fingers, and the monitor turned off. The room slowly started to brighten as the machines that were active shut down and started to retract into the ground. What was revealed was a massive area filled with even bigger machines. Pipes and circuitry practically made up the walls, and there was a large space on the floor that was pulsing with light.

Slowly, something started to rise from the space. It was a large machine, with what seemed to be a round device in the middle of it, glowing with energy. It sat there for a few moments, before it abruptly shot out a beam of energy into the ceiling. The shockwave nearly knocked the fighters of their feet, but Krizalid stood firm.

"A little word of warning for you all…" He said casually. "I wouldn't get too confident because of what you did a few minutes ago. As I said, I only wanted battle data, so now, you'll be facing the 'real' me. And with that…."

The large coat that adorned him suddenly burst into flames, disintegrating and leaving him in a bodysuit; the one that he used to download the battle data…

"Burn this image into your mind…." Krizalid gave an evil smile, "….and die…"

---

By time Krizalid had said those ominous words, Irena was back on the grated platform that took her down here. It was far enough so she didn't really know what was going on. She had to keep watch in case that certain 'someone' decided to butt in unexpectedly. It didn't take long before she heard footsteps, but the pattern was too inconsistent to be made by only one person.

"Oh goody. Sounds like Little Miss Whippy brought her friends with her." She droned, upset that she wouldn't get to sit and relax for a bit. Irena got up and stretched for a bit. "I think I can handle this on my own."

Since there was only one path that led to this point besides going down the elevator, she knew where they would be coming from. Reaching into her skirt pocket, she took out a small sphere. Irena tossed it down the path, and with a loud pop, smoke started to seep out, quickly covering the room. In an instant, she was running into the smoke in an attempt to get whoever was there while they were blind and coughing.

"YAAAAAH!" With an amazing speed that one would not have expected of her upon first sight, Irena threw a high-arcing kick. It hit something, but by the way the impact felt she knew that it had been blocked.

"_Maybe I shouldn't have made that noise…"_ Irena ducked what seemed to be a punch (she was basically going by instinct), before throwing several of her own. Some hit, some were blocked, some just plain missed. She was fighting blind because of the smoke, and it proved to be less successful than she thought, but it was necessary to prevent her supposed 'target' from effectively using her weapons.

Delivering another high kick, she was surprised when someone caught it, and the next thing she knew, she had her legs tripped from under her and she fell to the ground. The smoke was clearing and Irena was finally getting a clearer view of the people she was fighting. She could almost see the features of the person right in front of her: Dirty blond hair, the strip of cloth that hung around his neck, the scar that ran down his eye…….wait a minute…..

"Raven?" Irena said blankly as the smoke cleared and the face of the supposed leader of the SSC finally came to full view.

"I-Irena?" By the expression on her face, he was just as surprised as she was. "That was you?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm sorry…" She responded, thankful that she chose a medium length skirt, otherwise things would have became uncomfortable. She got up and noticed that the entire team was standing right in front of her."Wait….what the hell are you guys still doing here?"

"You know, that's a very good question…." Xion said to himself. Krysten just looked at Zyon and Raven, since it was their idea in the first place.

Finally, Raven started to speak, "We just wanted to know why you had to leave so abruptly. We just woke up and all that was left was a note." He turned a little red in the face. "We all wanted to see you one last time, so we kinda followed you all the way here."

Irena couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness after hearing that. "You guys….I really appreciate this, but do you know how much trouble you'll be in if you stay here?"

"Judging by those robots we met a few moments ago, that would probably be a yes." Zyon answered, and he got a look of confusion in response.

"Robots? We don't have any…" Irena suddenly realized what he was referring to. "Oh shit. You ran into the two clones that we sent out?"

"Clones?!?" Everyone said at once.

Irena nodded; she always knew that there was a chance that she would have to explain things to them. The dumbfounded looks on the SSC faces wasn't making it easy, however.

"I see that my intuition was right, something devious is going on here." Zyon finally regained his wits about him. "No wonder that you were so secretive…"

Sighing, Irena put covered her face with her hands. "What happened to the clones, guys?"

"They…uh…kinda burned themselves to death…" Krysten said quietly.

Irena let out another loud sigh. "Damn it. We told them that they were not to concern themselves with trying to make flames, but that's what happens when you use Kyo Kusanagi as a base…" She threw her arms down. "So I guess you want to stop me."

"We're not here to stop you, we just want to know what's going on." Raven said with little apprehension as he could.

Irena opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it again. "I can't tell you…" She said softly.

"Irena…"

"No! This is something that I can't get you involved in." Irena's tone became more serious, "Just leave. I will not allow you to get hurt just because you want to 'help' me." She turned away from them.

"Irena, we're not going to persecute you for your actions. Just tell us what's going on."

Irena stood there for a moment, before turning her head towards them yet again. "I'm going to tell you this because you are my friends. Eventually this will come out, and I prefer that you hear it from me."

She took a deep breath. "Basically the condensed version of the story is that my boss, no, this organization for that matter, has placed clones of Kyo Kusanagi all over the world. Once he gets all the 'data' he needs, they are going to start rampaging and taking those places over by force. It's a basic world domination thing."

There was a few moments of silence before Zyon finally spoke up. "Would any of those clones be anywhere near Japan?"

"Yes, but unfortunately, I don't know what's going to happen once they all activate. They could make it quick or they could do a whole lot of mindless damage."

"If that's the case, then it looks like we're going to have to stop them."

"WHAT?! Have you lost your minds?"

"Irena, we don't usually concern ourselves with stuff like this, but we have friends and family back home that we need to protect." Raven stated.

"Are you nuts? My boss will kill you! You have to get out of here, like RIGHT NOW!" Irena shouted, but no one was willing to budge.

"Don't worry, all we have to do is catch this 'boss' of yours off-guard and he'll be defeated in no time." Zyon smiled and reassured, but Irena didn't seem to share his confidence.

"I'm not letting you go through with this." She spread her arms in a 'Thou shall not pass' position. "I will fight you if I have to."

"Actually, you aren't." a voice behind her said. Just as she realized Zyon was gone, she felt a small pressure on her neck, and then everything went to black. Zyon caught her as she fell.

"Zyon, what the hell did you do?!" Raven shouted as he quickly scooped her up in his arms.

"Stop panicking. It's just a basic knockout move I learned. It only does that, nothing more." Zyon voice slightly gave away the concern he had for his sister's safety. "Now then, shall we get going?"

With that, the SSC hesitantly continued their journey to what would hopefully be their last encounter. This time, however, there was no point in trying to come up with a plan.

---

"Typhon Rage!"

K' was thrown into the wall by the sudden force generated from Krizalid's attack. Slumping to the ground, he absentmindedly took note of everyone else's condition, which to put it mildly, wasn't very good.

Whereas Krizalid was somewhat weak in the first battle, he was absolutely unstoppable in the second one. He seemed to push away everyone's attacks with ease, preventing anyone from easily getting close to him. And even if they managed to do that, it took only a moment for Krizalid to push them back.

"What's wrong, clone?" He taunted, "Where's that intensity that I saw a few moments ago?" Krizalid knew that the revelation that K' was his clone was messing up his focus, which only made him easier to beat. Seeing him struggling to even land more than one hit on him was amusing. Despite that, however, he still hadn't gained enough data to activate the clones. That wasn't a big concern to him right now; he'll keep going as long as he had to.

"Well now, it looks as if…." Krizalid suddenly cut his sentence short. He turned his head to the side in time to notice the red projectile that was just about to collide with his head. With a quick step back, he narrowly avoided it, watching sail towards the other side of the room only to get destroyed by another beam of energy courtesy of the machinery.

Noticing where it came from, he discovered the source of that attack. Raven was standing there with a look of embarrassment on his face, while the rest of the SSC were trying not to shake their heads in disappointment.

"Uh….That wasn't supposed to happen." Raven gave a nervous smile.

"Hmm. If it isn't the Shin Sekai Chitsujo…" Krizalid mused. "I knew there was a chance you would be here."

"Yyou mean you heard about us?"

"Of course. I was the one who approved your entry into the tournament, after all. Needless to say, I was very impressed with your run." Krizalid said, "But I can't help but wonder how you managed to get down here, thought. Where's Irena?"

"Don't worry, she's right here." Zyon said, presenting the unconscious girl in his arms.

Krizalid's face twisted into an expression of anger. "What have you done with her?!"

"Don't get so uptight. She's just knocked out." Raven assured, and Krizalid calmed down a bit.

"So, why are you here? Are you doing this in a vain attempt to try and impress my associate?" He pointed at K' and the others, "Or are you planning to come to the rescue of these people?"

"People?" Raven looked at the team on the other side of the room. "No way!" He scoffed, "We just want to stop you from doing whatever the hell you're trying to do with those clones."

Zyon, surprisingly, was more serious about this, "Things like this only lead to pain and heartbreak for everyone involved. I have to stop this, for the sake of my sister and everyone else." He placed Irena in a area in which she would be safe from any incoming attacks.

"My, my…you sure seem confident, especially considering you don't have a clue about how you're going to beat me." Krizalid said confidently.

Raven laughed a bit. "You haven't been watching us for the past few days, have you?" A confident smile formed on his face. "Because if you did, you would already have realized that underestimating us is a bad, bad idea."

"Well, since I do need a bit more data before our plan comes to fruition, I'll oblige you with a match." Krizalid shifted into his stance, which was so casual the SSC couldn't even tell.

"Fine then. Whatever happens to you, however, is your own fault." Raven cracked his knuckles. He was confident, since there was one thing up his sleeve that could prove to be a difference maker….

---

Shikkoku: Sorry about the wait, but between school, laziness, and accidently deleting a entire page and a half of dialogue and trying to rewrite the whole thing from memory, it's been tough.

In any case, there are only two chapters left after this. Other than that, there's nothing important.

Notes:

_Some of you might wonder why I featured Krizalid so prominently in this chapter. Well, it's partly because out of all the NESTS bosses, he's my favorite. I wanted to get real specific with the whole clone plan too. I changed that little tidbit about them collecting the data from the battle with Orochi to just the '97 tournament because I seriously doubt that anyone besides Kyo, Iori, Chizuru and Orochi himself were present for that battle._

_The other reason for the long exposition was to try to explain the clones. Now, in the game they can use flames with ease, but I decided that it would be much more interesting for them to lack the skill to use them in this story, as to better explain Krizalid's need for 'Trigger Data'._

_Expect a (hopefully) decent battle next chapter. It'll definitely be longer than the one in this chapter._

Now….I said that I was going to talk about Nameless. I don't know (or care for that matter) the exact reasons they took K9999 out of KOF 2k2 Unlimited Match, but now we got him instead. I'm not going to bash him, but his storyline is pretty generic (fighting for a girl, how original), and I doubt he (or Isolde for that matter) will make an appearance in the next 2 acts of New Blood. That could change, however, if I can use them without screwing up the planned storyline too much.

Roseate Dawn and Flaming Arsenal, thank you both for reviewing. And for anyone else reading this, thank you as well for taking the time to read this.

Next chapter: The SSC vs. Krizalid. Everything comes to ahead as they fight with their lives (and possibly the world) at stake.

Until Next Time, Sayonara.


	12. Desperation: SSC vs Krizalid

Disclaimer: I do not own KOF.

---

KOF: New Blood - Act 1

Chapter 12: Desperation: SSC vs. Krizalid

---

Raven, in all of the years that he could actually still recall, hasn't had this much fun in a long time.

Fighting can be very fun, but when your opponents are usually weak, overconfident or just too stupid to know what he or she was doing, it tends to be sort of a buzz-killer. That's why this tournament was like a breath of fresh air. His battle with Terry Bogard gave him a feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time, since the day he received that scar that ran under his left eye. It was a feeling that he couldn't describe; all he knew that it felt wonderful.

Now here he was, standing across from what could be the strongest person he has ever faced. Pushing aside thoughts of what could happen if the SSC lost; Raven mentally prepared himself for the battle. But before he could do anything, he needed to form a plan.

"Guys, leave this all to me!" Raven declared. "I'll fight him on my own!"

"Are you nuts?! Let's just gang up on him already! There's no reason to follow tournament rules anymore!" Krysten replied.

"Does it look like it'll be that easy?! Just look at what happened to those other guys!"

"Raven does has a point," Zyon interrupted, "While I understand that ganging up on him may look like the logical thing to do, but if that happens, all that would do is wear us down even faster. It'll be easier if we take him on one at a time. If that doesn't work, then we'll beat the holy hell out of him together, okay?"

"Fine…" Krysten just stood back and watched. "I hope you're right.

"None of that is going to matter since it will not take me that long to defeat all of you." Krizalid said, "So I don't recommend that you get too…" Raven started rushing toward him halfway during his sentence, "….confident."

He quickly put his hands up in time to stop the elbow that was aiming for his stomach. Raven quickly spun around and attempted to sweep him, but Krizalid quickly stepped back to avoid it. The teen used his momentum to do yet another kick, this time aimed at the head, but that was easily avoided as well.

"If that's all the skill you have, then you are about to be in big trouble." Krizalid said right before Raven finally landed a kick into his midsection, causing him to falter back a bit.

"Yeah, go ahead; keep mouthing off and we'll see who is going to be in 'big trouble'." Raven said. He began to assault him with a series of punches, their targets varying, before finishing with a quick axe kick. While Krizalid was stunned, Raven did a short hop before doing a quick spinning kick that hit him twice in the upper body.

"Ha! How did you like that?"

"You continue to impress me. I wasn't expecting you to attack so suddenly, I'll give you that." Krizalid's suit seemed to glow for a second or two. "But this is only the beginning…"

Raven unexpectedly found himself being grabbed by the shirt and dragged towards him. Krizalid rammed his body into the teen, sending him flying a short distance before landing on the ground. Even with the wind knocked from him, Raven quickly got back to his feet, charged towards Krizalid, and promptly got hit in the face by the sole of his boot.

"Well, that stint of aggression didn't last long." Krizalid walked over, grabbed Raven by the collar of his shirt and pulled him up to his feet. "But I guess you just couldn't handle it, could you?"

"_I'll show you..."_ Raven thought as he shoved Krizalid's arm away. Turning his body a bit to the side, he assumed a defensive stance. _"Go ahead…attack me and see what happens."_

Krizalid didn't realize the form Raven took. He threw a punch and watched as Raven efficiently dodged the attack, spinning around to avoid the punch before thrusting his elbow into the man's abdomen. It wasn't particularly strong; its primary use was that it left the victim open for another attack when hit. In this case, Raven followed up with a high kick to the head, sending his opponent stumbling.

Raven wiped his mouth instinctively, and noticed the blood that smeared on his sleeve; a product of his attack earlier. _"If worse comes to worse, I'll probably end up using__** that **__technique. But that should be a last ditch effort right now. At this moment, I should just keep attacking."_

Krizalid started to regain his senses, and luckily for him, it was during that time that Raven was closing in on him once again. A small smile appeared on his face.

"_Closer…closer…that's right…"_

The minute he knew that Raven was in range, Krizalidjumped in the air and performed the Rising Dark Moon. As expected, Raven had no idea it was coming and got hit by it full force. He was sent even higher in the air than the last time, and then he hit the ground with a dull thud.

The impact knocked him out for a brief moment. When he finally came to, Krysten was kneeling over him.

"Owwww…" His body felt terrible. Looking down, he discovered that he was bleeding from a wound in his chest that almost looked like a knife had sliced it. "Bastard…"

"You let your guard down. Bad idea." Krizalid started to walk towards them. "I'll admit that so far you are way more aggressive than my last victim." He motioned towards K', "But you're still no match for me."

Krysten slowly stood up. He knew that his brother would obviously try to get up and continue to fight, but for the moment, he had to protect him. Without warning, he charged towards Krizalid and attacked him with everything he had.

Unfortunately, because Krysten was attacking with blind rage rather than strategy, it was easy for Krizalid to guard against the assault. As soon as he saw an opening, he thrust his foot into Krysten's stomach. With his high leg strength, he lifted the younger Kirishima up before throwing him right into his brother. Now both of them were down.

"Two down. Anyone else?"

"…And it looks like I'll be coming to your rescue once again." Zyon sighed. He was hoping that they would do a better job of wearing him down at this point. Right before he started to enter the fight, Raven tugged on his pants leg.

"Yo, what is it?" Zyon crouched down to listen. Raven grabbed him by the head and whispered something into his ear. "Oh, I see." He nodded. "Fine. If that's what you think, I'll go along."

"So what is this? While adapting your plan as the fight goes on is good strategy, I doubt it'll do you any good." Krizalid said.

"Whatever. You're dealing with me now." Zyon walked towards him and got into his stance. Even though he had plenty of energy to go into one of his modes, he would save those for later. At the moment, he could wear Krizalid down with his normal style, then once he starts to adapt to it, he'll switch to fire/lighting mode, which hopefully throws him off guard enough for Zyon to defeat him.

As soon as he felt he was ready, Zyon broke into a sprint. Actually, it was more of a dash; done so fast that he practically disappeared for a split second (the same technique that Xion uses). Krizalid hadn't exactly figured out how to defend against something like this, so he wasn't prepared when Zyon slammed his leg into the side of his stomach.

Zyon was a lot more relentless with his attacks. He hit him with a fast combination of kicks before ending with a spinning kick to the midsection, and when Krizalid keeled over from the last hit, he kicked him directly in the face. Zyon watched in amusement as his opponent clutched his face in pain.

"_I see now why my sister holds such an interest in you."_ Krizalid thought after a moment. He wiped the blood that was leaking from his injured nose.

"You're not planning on giving up because of a little injury, are you?"

"Hardly."

"That's good. It would be disappointing if you wimped out on me now." Zyon stated, "Let's continue."

---

As the two went at each other again, the team that where originally there was left to sit on the sidelines. Of course they weren't complaining; K' still wasn't all there in the head, Maxima's system was in the middle of trying to repair some minor damage while calculating a plan, and Benimaru and Shingo figured that they could use the time to rest up.

"Shingo?"

"Hm? What is it Benimaru-san?"

"That person fighting right now…" Benimaru asked as he watched Zyon do a complicated spinning attack that completely missed the target. "Didn't you say he goes to school with you?"

"Uh...yeah. That's Zyon Kasanari."

"So he's the one you say can use electricity like me? My, that's quite the talented kid. Hopefully he'll wear him down enough so we can beat him."

"TYPHON RAGE!"

Benimaru sighed as he watched Zyon get thrown back by Krizalid's annoyingly effective attack. "Or I could be very, very wrong."

---

After what seemed to be 5 minutes of close combat with him, neither man had made any headway. Zyon had landed a few hits when the Typhon Rage blew him back, but he was quick enough to get back up close before Krizalid was able to use it again. Leaping up into the air, he twisted around so he landed behind his opponent. Grabbing Krizalid by the neck and started to run to the nearest wall. Unfortunately, the older man managed to reverse it around at the last minute, twisting around so it was Zyon that got slammed against the wall instead.

Before Zyon could think up a way to get himself out of this mess, Krizalid started punching him rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that it felt like he was getting shot with an automatic weapon.

"Hahahaha! It's time for your punishment!" Krizalid ceased his assault as he reared back for one more strike, as Zyon was still dazed from being hit so many times. With one last punch, the young fighter crumbled to the ground in pain.

"_Shit…Fighting normally isn't working anymore. I'm going to need the flames…" _Zyon discreetly took the lighter out of his pocket. As he was trying to light it, however, Krizalid found that it was the perfect opportunity for him to grind his face into the floor by stepping on his head.

"You are unique as well. I'm in a giving mood, so I think I'll give you the opportunity to get something out of this whole ordeal." Krizalid said, "How about you work for me?"

"Why? And why ask me in particular?"

"Think about this, I'm sure my staff can help you learn to use your powers more effectively." He stated, "Our technology can do more to help you than 10 years of training could ever do."

"And even though I probably already know the answer, what If I refuse?"

"Well, we'll have to see now, won't we?" Krizalid said, "Though I doubt any other outcome I can think of consists of you and your team actually surviving this battle."

Xion, who for the most part had been worried for his friend's well being, knew that if he could keep Krizalid busy, Zyon would have time to switch to one of his powers. So, without actually screaming out the name of the attack, he threw a fast Koryuga. It wasn't very strong, but it hit him right in the chest hard enough for him to move his attention towards Xion.

"Why you…" Krizalid was annoyed by the black-haired teen's interruption. "You want to play games. Well then, how about we see if you can dodge this!"

From his hand, Krizalid fired a small purple energy spark, which was quickly heading towards Xion's direction. He tried to move out of the way, but it seemed to be homing in on him no matter what he did. With no other alternatives, he threw another one of his fireballs in hopes of the two colliding and them negating each other out.

Unfortunately for him, it didn't work.

"GAH!" Xion took the brunt of the hit. He was so confident that they would cancel each other out, that when Krizalid's attack went through his, it caught him off guard. Despite all that, he still had managed to accomplish his goal of distracting Krizalid long enough.

"_Thanks, Xio-kun." _Zyon took out his lighter (which, thankfully, wasn't broken from all of the fighting he did) and quickly lit it over the palm of his gloved hand…

"Now then, back to what I was saying..." The moment Krizalid turned around, he got a blaze of blue flames right in the face. He managed to defend himself just in time, but it did some serious damage. He took a look at the person who attacked him.

Zyon was standing listlessly before him. His hair had turned to a shade of white, but unlike with the lightning, it also had a slight red tone to it. The irises on his eyes had also turned red, but contrary to their color, they looked at him with something more akin to a blank stare than a rage filled glare. But the most noticeable aspect was the flames that were coming from both of his hands in all its bright blue glory…

"So this is your power?" Krizalid couldn't help but be astonished, "I never thought I would see someone not of Kusanagi or Yagami blood wielding flames..."

"Yeah…" Zyon's tone was less energetic, and had a darker tone to it. "I figured burning you alive would be a much more fitting fate for you in this case."

"Really? Irena told me that you have a hard time controlling things when it comes to those flames. That only leads me to wonder why you refuse my offer to help you master them."

"Sorry, but I have issues with authority. I have issues with a lot of things, quite frankly." He gave a lazy shrug, "Besides, I'm not interested in being someone's lapdog, especially if it comes at the expense of everyone else."

"If you can barely control your own flames, how can you hope to defeat me?"

Before Krizalid had time to react, Zyon was in front of him and delivered a powerful hook right to his face. That shot was even more painful when you added in the fact that both of his hands were currently on fire. Clutching his now damaged face, he glared at the now grinning flame-user.

"That should be a perfectly reasonable answer, don't you agree?"

---

Raven cringed as he tried to stand with the grievous wound he suffered. During all of that, he had gone to check on Irena, who was still knocked out. Krysten was close by to make sure his brother was alright.

"So what did you tell Zyon before he started fighting?" The younger brother asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"Plan? Yeah. I think I know of a way to beat him."

"Really? What is it?"

"Kakusei."

Krysten face fell at the mention of that technique. "Kakusei? Are you insane? You can't use that technique!"

"Listen! At this point we have no other choice. So we're going to do it like this. Depending on how our friend fares in this battle, I'm going to initiate Kakusei and go at him one last time. If I win, I win, but even if I lose, there's still the other team who will probably be rested up at that time."

There was a long pause after that. "You know when she finds out that you used it, you're dead, right?"

"I know, Krysten. I know." Raven laughed a bit, causing him to cringe because of his injury. "Ow…I certainly hope that Zyon will fare well."

"That certainly will depend on how long he is able to keep his flames going. He seems to be doing a good job so far." Krysten frowned. "I still can't believe he managed to get those. I'm so jealous, I want some!"

Raven just rolled his eyes.

---

"One! Two! Three!"

Zyon punctuated each of his blows with those shouts as he continued to lay into Krizalid. His plan was going well; Krizalid was having a hard time trying to adjust to the new style, and because of it Zyon, had the upper hand for the moment. The flames were stable so far, but he knew that soon they would start to burn his hands, so he had to make this quick.

Krizalid continued to defend himself until he thought he saw an opening, during which he swung his arm around in an effort to turn the match around. But Zyon saw it coming and ducked quickly, countering that attack with a strong uppercut that clocked the man right in his jaw. Krizalid once again clutched his face in pain, but that was enough time for Zyon to knock his legs from under him, sending him to the floor face first.

"So…what do you think?" The blond teen said casually.

After a few seconds of coughing, Krizalid turned around so that he was on his back. "I'll admit. I miscalculated how powerful those flames would be. Thankfully I designed this suit to be able keep from letting those flames fry its circuits." The suit started to glow again. "See? It's downloading your data as we speak. It's only a matter of time now…" A flying ball of fire struck him right in the arm, interrupting his boast.

"Let me remind you that you aren't in the position to act confident." Zyon's voice barely had emotion in it.

"Really? You don't really think that a few attacks will finish me off, do you?"

"Maybe, maybe not." He stepped on Krizalid's chest. "We'll just have to see, right? You'll break eventually. Everybody does. It's just that some are tougher than others."

"I'll have to agree with you there." He panted,

"That's good. Thanks for your understanding." Zyon gave the fallen man's chest a good stomp before stepping back a bit.

"_I think if I can hit him with this move it'll be over quickly." _Zyon thought to himself._ "Or at the least, give him a critical blow."_

While Krizalid was slowly getting up, Zyon started to charge his attack. Both of his flames started to flare wildly as he waited for the perfect moment to unleash his attack. He knew that as soon as he did this move his flames would disappear, and he doubted that he would have the energy required to reignite them again. So he had to make this one count. Now, he saw his chance.

"Here it comes…" Zyon reared back for a second, "Now, burn to ashes!"

A huge explosion of fire suddenly surrounded the area around and in front of him. The effect was so overwhelming that it was hard for anyone to know what happened.

"Oh hell…" Raven shielded his face from the overwhelming heat, "I never saw him use that technique before."

"I think I remembered him saying that he had made up a new move the day of our fight with the Fatal Fury team. I guess he never had a chance to use it because we placed him on striker duty." Krysten said.

"So he just used a move that he made up _yesterday_?" The older Kirishima held a hand to his face. "That idiot, I wouldn't be surprised if he missed it."

The flames finally died down, and when the smoke cleared, Zyon (now back to normal) was the sole person standing. Krizalid was gone, literally. His energy drained, he fell to a knee, trying to catch his breath.

"Where did he…where did he go?" Zyon had a bad feeling about this. As much as he hoped that his flames completely incinerated him, there wasn't any evidence to support that. "I had to have hit him. That was way too big to dodge at that distance."

"So, what were you saying about me not being in the position to act confident?" Krizalid's familiar voice said behind him. Zyon turned around and there was Krizalid. A portion of his suit had been burned, but he still looked to be in better shape then the exhausted teen.

"_Son of a…I guess that move needs some kinks to be worked out. But I might still have enough left to…"_

Krizalid leaned back and roared, and without warning a giant pillar of flame erupted from the ground. Zyon only had time to cover his face when it hit him; the force was enough to send him flying into the wall (the same one that Krizalid had all but pounded him into a few minutes earlier). As he landed face first into the ground, he remained conscious, his body suffering from the abuse (both from Krizalid and his own body) that has been inflicted upon it.

"You know, if you weren't so cocky and didn't spend so much time charging your 'attack' so you can try and finish the fight with some big flashy move…." Krizalid stopped, "….nah, it'll probably have ended up like this anyway. But you might have had a better chance. But look at you now..." He turned Zyon over with his foot and placed it on his neck. Zyon could do nothing but try his best to glare a hole through him. "Don't give me that 'angry stare because I don't want to admit I'm a hopeless loser' look, it'll only make your last moments look pathetic. You should die with some dignity, at least."

For the second time, something hit Krizalid straight in the back. It was hot enough for him to lose his focus. "Now what?!" He was getting sick of people butting in unexpectedly. But this time the source of that attack was none other than his 'clone'. K' stood definitely; looking recovered enough to fight again.

"I'm not done with you, asshole." He cracked his knuckles.

"Oh. So you suddenly up and ready to get beaten again, huh? I'll assume that you didn't regain consciousness in time to see what I just did to him." He pointed at Zyon, "Because if you really think you have a chance against me after that, then I see right now that I need to uphold some better standards for the test subjects in our next experiment."

"You talk too much, you know that?" K' interrupted, "I understand things now. I guess that shit about me being your 'clone' messed with my head for a bit, but that doesn't matter right now. All I know that I'm not going to be the puppet for you or anyone else in this group anymore."

"And you think you'll be able to stop me?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"And don't forget us! We'll be right behind you too!" Shingo said enthusiastically.

"Not if I have anything to say about it. You two stay out of stay out of this. It's between me and this punk over here."

"But we're part of your team…"

"I think that we'd only be in the way, Shingo." Benimaru assured, but then whispered, "Of course, if they get their asses kicked, then we'll get involved…"

"Fine then. I'll deal with you after I get rid of this pest here…" Krizalid looked back and Zyon, surprisingly, was gone. Raven had used the distraction to get him out of harm's way, and he couldn't believe that he wasn't able to sense his presence. If things keep going like this, then his mission would be a failure, and he couldn't afford for that to happen. "Scratch that. I'll take you on right now."

"Good. I'm about to take your worthless ass down."

"Hmph. Let's see if you can try, useless clone."

---

After Raven dragged Zyon to safety, Xion quickly went over to check on his friend. Despite all that happened to him, Zyon still managed to remain conscious.

"Zyon, are you alright?" Xion asked, "You certainly took a beating out there."

"Feh. I have been through worse. Don't worry, I'll heal fast." Zyon struggled for a bit as he sat up. "So what are we going to do now? Let those guys take him on?"

"Well…" Raven trailed off. K's interference put a wrench into his plan, which was both a good and bad thing. Good because it would give himself more time to recover, bad because he didn't have a clue what the SSC should do now.

"Don't you think that we should just let them beat each other senseless? At least that way, we can just pick apart what's left when they're done." Krysten said.

Raven thought about it for a bit, but then he noticed the machinery behind the two fighters, which had continued to routinely blast out a beam of energy every few minutes or so. He didn't know exactly what it was doing, but he did know that whatever it was, it had to do with the plan that Irena had mentioned.

"We need to destroy that machine…" Raven said quietly, even though Krizalid wasn't paying them any attention in the first place, as his focus was being placed directly on K'. "If we do that, then it could turn to our favor."

"Do you really think that would work? How are you going to do it?"

"I have a new plan, and it's going to involve me butting into this fight once again." Raven grinned. "We just have to wait for the right moment. Krysten, I'm going to need your help on this…."

---

*BOOM!*

For the second time, K' and Krizalid faced off. But unlike the last time, K' was no longer distracted with doubt and confusion about his origins. He had a goal to achieve, and that made him more focused, which in turn made him more aggressive, which in turn made it more difficult for Krizalid to defend against. He had to develop a whole new strategy for fighting him, and it was hard to do that when your opponent never gave you any time to think of one…

"OWAAA!" K' blasted him with the Crow Bites. Krizalid was sent to the air but was able to land on his feet. With a reasonable space between the two fighters, he had the opportunity to mount a good defense.

"Typhon Ra-"

"SAAAAAAARAAAAAA!"

*Crack!*

K' had managed to close the gap in quick fashion before hitting Krizalid with a Minute Spike before he could fully complete the Typhon Rage. He fell to the floor in a heap.

"Damn it…" The aura of confidence that he had displayed throughout the battle was beginning to fade, giving way to anger and frustration. "I won't be beaten by my inferior copy!"

"Whatever you say…" K' did an Eins Trigger, "It's not like it'll make much of a difference anyway."

When K' kicked the flame towards Krizalid, he instantly rolled out of the way. In no time, he rushed towards him and gave his 'clone' a hard shot to the stomach. When K' keeled over, he followed up by grabbing him by the throat, giving him enough room for Krizalid to ram a knee into his stomach.

"You deluded fool." He lifted him off of the ground, "You dared to defy me. ME of all people, of all times, of all places. I was hoping that I could help you achieve a better control of your powers, but now that the data is almost finished loading, there's no need to keep you alive any longer. Oh, and before you get any ideas…" He hit Maxima with a Negative Anguish the moment Krizalid thought he was going to intervene. "So what now? Don't you have anymore fight left in you?"

"Yoo-hoo! Don't forget about me!" Raven announced from his place on the other side of the room.

"You again?" Krizalid turned towards him. "Does everyone here have a death wish or something?"

"No… It's just that there's something that you might not know…" He smiled slyly. "Like Zyon, I have a special power as well!"

"Really? And what would that be?"

Raven closed his eyes and started to concentrate. A dark red aura started to surround him for a few seconds, and he muttered a few words under his breath. His hair turned completely black and his irises turned the same dark red color. When Raven let out a long sigh of relief, he knew it was over.

Krizalid was not impressed. "So that's you secret power? Changing your hair color?" He said, still maintaining the grip he had on K's throat.

"No, that's not it, though I admit it looks pretty cool," Raven started walking forward, "It's basically a slight power boost; that's about as accurate a description I can give for it."

"If that's the case, what was the point of doing all that in front of me?"

"Oh nothing much, it's just a brief distraction while that guy you're holding wriggles out of your grip and beats you up."

"What?"

*POW!*

Krizalid got a boot in the face, courtesy of the now-free K'. Krizalid held his hands over his face, lowering his defenses which only ensured that he'd get beaten up even more. Even worse, Maxima got involved and hit him with a Vapor Cannon that sent him across the room.

"Always butting in…" K' muttered, "I had it under control, you know?"

"Heh, I know." Maxima smiled, "I just wanted to pay him back for earlier."

"Whatever." K' looked at Krizalid's form, lying slumped against the wall. "Hey, are you still alive?"

He didn't answer, but slowly he got back to his feet. Everything he had spent so much time planning was going to hell. The confidence that he had exuded so much during the early parts of the battle had long since disappeared. Losing was one thing, but being shown up by someone that was supposedly an inferior version of him was a blow to his pride. The only thing he could think that was good is the fact that Irena wasn't awake to see him like this. He wasn't going to go down without a fight, however. He would….

"Hey! What the hell you think you're doing?!" K' shouted suddenly. Upon realizing that he wasn't talking to him, Krizalid noticed that everyone was looking up. He followed their gazes to find Raven in the air.

"Shinki Hatsudou!"

The next thing Krizalid knew, there was a huge, dark red fireball coming directly at him.

"Oh hell…"

He quickly ducked out of the way, and thankfully, the fireball passed by him…

…And collided right into the machine that was handling the 'trigger' data.

More specifically, the very center of the machine where the energy beams had been shooting out, damaging it severely. With the flow of energy blocked, the rest of the machines started to overload. Sparks started to appear all over the room, as machines over heated and shorted out.

"What's happening!?" Krizalid tried to find a way to shut it down, but the controls was on the other side of the room. With no hope of stopping it in time, he was forced to watch helplessly as his highly intricate plan went down in flames.

Within seconds, the entire process completely shut down. In that same moment, the entire room went dark (the lights was partly powered by the machines). Everyone was left confused for a few seconds before a hologram appeared with the words 'INITIATING RESERVE POWER'. Within a few seconds the lights were back on, albeit slightly dimmer than before.

There was a period of time that everybody just stood there. Krizalid was finally the one who broke the silence.

"I will….I will not lose to either of you…" He said in a low voice. "I can still send the data…things will go according as plan. I just need to deal with these pests that have tried to destroy everything. I'm going to get to the SSC soon enough, but the most important thing to me is finishing things with my incompetent clone. "

"Uh…do you think he realizes that his chances of winning are slim to none?" Krysten whispered. "We've pretty much wore him out, right?"

"He's a fighter. People like them have a hard time admitting that they're defeated." Raven answered.

"So what should we do?"

"We did our part. Let them two finish the fight, it's their problem now."

K' started to charge the flames in his gloved hand, "I think that the best way to settle this is a good fashioned duel, don't you think? Let's see which one of us is truly superior."

Krizalid's face broke into an evil grin. "I like your thinking. I'm going to end this, once and for all!"

He leaned back and a pillar of fire exploded around him once again, but unlike last time, his entire body was in flames when it disappeared. For a brief second, the fire almost looked like they formed wings behind him.

"Now…I will show you my FULL POWER!" Krizalid shouted before he charged towards K', both arms completely ablaze.

A smirk formed on his face. "I'll finish this!" K' charged forward with a Heat Drive.

The seconds their attacks met, there was a small explosion caused by the collision. Everybody shielded their eyes from the dust and smoke that was a byproduct of it. After a minute, things finally started to clear up. Krizalid looked around for his opponent's fallen body, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"But how? It's not like the last time; I saw him come straight at me!"

"Two simple words…" K' said, standing behind him. "Black. Out."

Krizalid realized what had happened. K' had used the Blackout to teleport past him at the last second, leaving him open. As if he had become conscious that his fate was sealed, Krizalid turned to face his fate.

K' hit him with the Heat Drive in extremely close range, and all he could do was stand there and take it. He felt himself fly through the air for what seemed like an eternity before he finally hit the ground, defeated.

"And stay down, you waste of space." K' spat on the ground. He adjusted his glove a bit; it had suffered a lot of damage during the battle. He guessed having to use the flames for so long was something it just couldn't handle.

Benimaru and Shingo let out a sigh of relief. Even if their participation was brief, at least they had won.

"So, you guys are the SSC, right?" K' suddenly turned towards them. "I don't care how you managed to get down here, but what the hell were you doing getting involved in my business?"

"You know, you're right. It seemed like you had him right where you wanted him before we got here." Raven's response was dripping with sarcasm, "Did we get you at a bad moment during the fight, or was getting your ass kicked all over the room all a part of a complex, intricate plan you thought up?"

"Considering how you fared, you shouldn't be talking…"

"At least we managed to do some damage to him…"

"Raven?" Krysten got between them before things could get violent, "I hate to break up your attempts to inflate each others egos, but I think Irena is starting to wake up."

"What?" Raven asked, but quickly remembered who he was talking about, "Oh crap. How are we going to explain all of this to her?"

"Just tell her the truth, okay. I'm sure she'll understand." Krysten assured.

Despite all that had happened during the fight, Irena had remained knocked out the entire time. But now, seemingly almost by convenience, she was starting to emerge from her sleep.

"Ugh…what happened to me? Don't tell me I fell asleep…" She said sleepily. Her eyes slowly regained it's focus; she saw Raven, Krysten and Xion beside her. She also noticed that she was back at Point 70599. "What the? How did I get back here? What are you guys doing?"

Raven smiled. "Nothing much. Your boss was just beat the hell out of us, that's all. Are you alright?"

"I'm okay..." It was about that time that she noticed the condition that Raven was in. "What happened to you?! You're bleeding!" She gasped.

"Don't worry. The wound isn't that deep, so I'll manage for the time being. Zyon took it much worse, thought."

"Oh dear…" Irena looked at Zyon, who had recovered enough to get back on his feet. Besides the minor damage to his hands because he over used the flames a bit, there was a few burns on his arms and chest, and his clothes had scorch marks all over them. "Zyon…"

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine in a few days." He said, "I'm sorry I had to knock you out like that, but it was important that we had to do this."

"It's okay. Your intentions were good, that's all that matters." She smiled, but quickly realized that she forgot something important, "Speaking of which, what happened to my boss?"

"Well, you might want to ask him yourself." Raven pointed at Krizalid's fallen form.

Irena's eyes widened with shock. "How the hell did that happen?"

K' grinned, "I kicked his grimy ass, obviously. He won't be talking smack anytime soon."

"You arrogant son of a…." She stomped towards him, "If he's dead, I swear to God, I kill you myself!"

"Pfft, yeah right. I'd like to see you try, girl."

"Actually, my readings state that he his still alive." Maxima interrupted before a fight could ensue, "In fact, he's starting to regain consciousness as we…."

Irena was already at his side by time Maxima finished. "Sir…Are you okay?" She patted his face a few times as he opened his eyes.

"Irena…" Krizalid muttered, "I'm sorry….Things wasn't supposed to happen this way…"

"Don't concern yourself with that. We can still make this work."

"Yes…your right." He slowly sat up, "I can still send the data, even if it isn't finished…."

"Actually, that won't be happening…" A new voice said. Everybody started looking around to see who was speaking. "You have failed."

"You…who are you to say that I've failed! I still have a chance!"

"No, you don't. It's over." The mysterious voice continued, "All of the clones have been deactivated. As we speak, forces around the world are at work capturing them while keeping our actions out of the public eye. Accept it, the plan has failed. We have no other choice but to abandon the mission."

Irena helped Krizalid to his feet. "All of my work…ends just like this?" He muttered. "2 years of planning just went down the drain. What do I do now?"

"Don't worry, you won't have to do a thing. As of right now, all operatives involved in this mission are to be terminated."

"What?!" Krizalid and Irena both shouted at once. A bright light seemed to shine over both of them.

"I don't care what you do to me, but leave Irena out of this!" Krizalid demanded

"Irena brought this on herself. If it wasn't for her inability to keep those kids out of this, then things possibly could have gone differently."

"_Fuck you. I did what I could." _Irena knew that something was off. "Sir, I think we should get out of here."

Krizalid just nodded.

"Guys! We need to leave now!" Irena shouted towards the SSC. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't really want to wait here and find out."

"Me neither, Irena." Krizalid looked up at the mysterious light, as if he was watching for _"Something just doesn't seem right about this right about this…"_ Without warning, the light was gone. "What the?"

There was a noise that sounded like a small rumble of thunder, and then something in the ceiling started to crack. It didn't take Krizalid long for him to put two and two together. Someone was trying to destroy the base, but how? He didn't have time to think about that, because large chunks of the ceiling had broken off and was heading right for him.

"_You bastard…."_ He quickly pushed Irena out of harms way right before the debris fell on him. All she could do is look on with horror as her boss was seemingly crushed.

"NO!" Irena screamed. She immediately rushed over to Krizalid; his lower body was covered with rocks and electrical equipment that were too heavy for her to lift alone. Amazingly, he was still alive.

"I-Irena…You…have to….run…." Krizalid groaned in pain. "He…He's going to…kill you..."

"I'm not leaving without you! I will get you out of here somehow!" Irena was in a panic; she needed to get out of here quick, because if this was any indication, she would be next. The SSC (even Zyon, injured as he was) tried to assist their friend in her time of need, but they were only managing to get some of the smaller pieces off.

"Just leave the bastard there," K' said as Maxima went over to provide a little more strength for them to use. "He deserves every bit of what he's getting."

Irena gave him a dirty look, but was given a smirk in return. "Luckily for you I'm feeling generous right now, or else I would make sure that you would be in as much bad shape as your boss is right now."

"Kiren'eki!"

Out of nowhere, K' was struck in the chest by Raven's attack, which was made stronger by the fact that he was still in Kakusei. The force knocked him flat on his back.

"No more smartass comments from you, idiot." Raven was dead serious, "Believe me, at this state that I'm in right now, I can do much, much worse to you than just that. I won't all you to threaten her."

"Why you little punk ass piece of…!" K' was absolutely furious. He stomped towards Raven, looking to pay him back for his insult.

"Stop it you two." Irena had to get between them to keep things civil, "There's no point of fighting over this anymore. This tournament ended a long time ago…"

"Hmph. Whatever you say. He's not worth the trouble anyway…" K' said. Just as he was about to walk away, a strange feeling shot up his right arm. It was almost like his powers were being attracted to something.

"My, my. I didn't think I would run into something like this down here…what a mess you guys caused." A familiar voice said. Every single person turned their head towards its source.

Standing there was someone that hasn't been seen in more than 2 years. His outfit was different than what most people were used to; the school uniform had been replaced by a black shirt with a cross designed outlined on it, blue jeans and a white jacket. But even with that, it was obvious who it was that stood before them.

Kyo Kusanagi, the person that had been cloned by the organization and who's powers was now a part of both K' and Krizalid, had arrived. And he wanted answers.

---

Shikkoku: *sighs in relief* Finally, that's done. This will probably be the longest chapter in the story , even without my usual notes. Of course, this chapter was so long, that there will be 14 chapters instead of 13 as I originally planned.

_Notes:_

_One main issue I had with writing the fight scene was that it was hard to make it so that everybody got equal share of fighting. I had to make sure that the SSC didn't get destroyed by Krizalid too easily, I had to make sure that Krizalid didn't get plowed by the SSC or else it'll make them look too powerful, I needed to keep myself from marginalizing K's role in the fight too much or else it'll make him look unimportant to the plot, etc_

_I was confused as to how I wanted the fight to turn out. I thought I had everything planned out when I started., but as usual, it kept changing in my head. Raven going into Kakusei state was originally supposed to be a more major event in the fight, but since I ended up reworking the end so that K' is the one to defeat Krizalid (with Raven's assistance, of course), it ended up being a minor thing that probably won't be explained till the next story in this series (the one that takes place between Acts 1 and 2)._

_Benimaru, Shingo and Maxima barely gotten any mention because I wanted to focus on K' a bit more, after all, the saga is going to revolve around him quite a bit._

_Speaking of which , I'm sure that some of you might notice that K' has been a dick to Irena and the SSC this chapter, and you're probably right. He and the SSC (Raven in particular) aren't going to be on good terms, especially leading up to the still unnamed Act 2, so it'll won't be changing anytime soon._

_As I said before. With this chapter, there's going to be two more chapters before this is over: One involving Kyo and their little escape from 70599 in the mandatory 'We defeated the boss! Oh shit, the secret hideout is falling apart!' part of the story, and the last one will wrap things up. I'm going to leave a little preview for the next part of this story at the end as well, just to keep you satisfied while I try and catch up with my two other stories that hasn't been updated in more than half a year (Because I was stupid enough to think that I could finish this thing off quickly….)_

As always, be sure to tell me how I'm doing.

Next chapter: It's Kyo Kusanagi! What will happen when he confronts K'? Will Irena be able to save her boss? Will the SSC be able to get out of the crumbling base, especially when Heidern sends soldiers out to apprehend K' and the other members of NESTS? And what does Whip want with Krizalid?

Until Next Time, Sayonara.


	13. Silver Linings and Lost Causes

Disclaimer: I do not own King of Fighters or anything related to it. If I did, then XII would have had a story. And a boss. And more than 5 stages. (Among other things…)

---

KOF: New Blood - Act 1

Chapter 13: Silver Linings and Lost Causes…

---

"I had expected to see some chaos here, but this is something else."

Kyo Kusanagi surveyed the scene before him. For the past year or so, he had been going around trying to solve the mystery of what happened to him.. He was prepared for a long, strenuous battle with him; what he got was Benimaru, Shingo, a bunch of guys he never seen before in his life, and the object of his anger lying under a pile of rubble. "What the hell happened here?"

"Kusanagi-sannnnn!" Shingo nearly broke his neck trying to reach his 'teacher'. Kyo quickly dodged out of the way of the impending bear hug, and Shingo ended of falling flat on his face.

"Hahaha…It's good to see you too, Shingo." Kyo helped him up. "And Benimaru…Well, I'd bet anything you're just happy that you got a chance to hog the spotlight to yourself now that me and Daimon aren't here."

"I'm not hogging anything. It's just natural that someone as hot as me will grab people's attention." Benimaru did a dramatic pose. "The fact that you weren't there to distract them was just a happy bonus."

"Sure it was…" Kyo words dripped with sarcasm.

"Anyway, what are you doing here? We haven't seen you in two years!"

"It's a long, long story, I'll tell you later…."

Kyo knew that Benimaru would be too proud to admit that he missed his friend. Kyo turned his attention to the others that were in the room. More specifically, the SSC, who with Maxima's help, had gotten most of the debris off of Krizalid. Upon seeing his face, Kyo growled as he approached the man, who still lay there on the ground.

"Looks like I'm a little late." He said. "I was hoping I would get to fight you personally, but someone seems to have beat me to it."

"Kyo…Kusanagi…." Krizalid coughed up a little blood, "I….I'm surprised you…made it…here. Did you happen to meet your…cl-clones on the way?"

"I have seen more than enough clones of myself to last a lifetime." Kyo responded, "But thankfully, someone seems to have taken them out already. You kinda overdid it with the flames, don't you think?"

"The clones were already destroyed?" Krizalid would have sat right up if it wasn't for his severe internal injuries. "Who..who could have…done that?"

The SSC raised their hands with nervous smiles on their faces.

"But to be fair," Krysten added, "Technically, they destroyed themselves."

At that point, Krizalid didn't care anymore. "I should have known..that would happen…eventually."

"Yes, I know all about how flawed they are." The Kusanagi heir smirked, "Here's a little tip: If they overstrain their bodies too hard when they try to make flames, sometimes they'll even explode."

"_Yuck! Don't remind me…" _The memory of the first few batches of clones made Irena cringe. "There's no point in hurting him anymore, Kyo. He's defenseless now."

"You're right. It's not as fun to bop them when they can't hit back. And judging by this scene, you couldn't even destroy your own base correctly. Now that's just sad. Rugal could've taught you a thing or two…."

"Shut up!" With everything that had happened today, Irena's nerves were too frazzled to deal with Kyo's smarminess at the moment, "That wasn't his fault!"

"Well then…." It was at that time that Kyo first laid his eyes on K' for the first time since he got there. "Who's that guy over there?"

"That 'guy' you're referring to is your clone, Kyo." The mysterious voice spoke once again.

"Wait, who are you?"

"You'll find out soon enough. Anyway, the person who is standing before you he's someone who has been infused with your DNA. He might not look like it, but he is one of the most successful clones we have made."

"So that's what you've been doing with my DNA? Implanting it into people against their will?" Kyo said angrily.

"That's a very crude way of putting it, but that is a fact…"

Amazingly enough, K' was silent the entire time. He just stood there and looked at the man who's powers he now possessed. His right arm was feeling weird right now, as if this man's presence was making his flames harder to control.

"Of course, but as you can tell, it's hasn't been perfected yet. There's still lots more work done on him, right K'?"

"Not a chance in hell. I'm not going to be a part of this sham of a cartel!" K' declared, rather loudly at that. "I'm going to make my own way from now on. Anyone who doesn't like it can go to hell for all I care."

"Well, I guess some of Kyo's stubbornness was grafted into you along with those flames. Oh well. There's no time anymore to be concerned about that, there's a bigger issue coming our way."

---

Back outside, as it was starting to get dark, Leona was gathering some flares and other sources of light from the truck. It had been hours since she had sent Whip down underground and she had yet to hear from either her or Ralf and Clark. Though she wouldn't show it, she was definitely concerned…

"Hey there, Leona." Ralf's familiar voice called out to her. "Did you miss us?"

"What…how long have you been up here?" Leona stood as Ralf and Clark approached her.

"We managed to get out of there a few minutes ago. Man, it was like a maze down there; We couldn't find anything down there." Clark said.

"Nothing? You didn't even run into Whip?"

"You sent her into that maze too?!" Ralf panicked, "Why?"

"It seems like those kids that beat us a few days ago decided to sneak into the thing for some reason," Leona said in her usual matter-of-fact tone, "Whip volunteered herself to go in there to try and stop them, but she hasn't been seen since."

"Well, she better contact us soon. I just talked to the commander, and a squadron of soldiers are on their way here to try and gather up anyone that we can involved with this whole incident that's going on right now. He will be following them shortly."

Leona started to ask when the troops were scheduled to arrive, but the sounds of helicopters in the distance answered that question for her. "That was quicker than usual…"

"Considering the shady characters involving the tournament, it was best that we were prepared this time." Clark mentioned.

"Hopefully they can help get Whip out of there before she get's hurt." Ralf said, "We're going to go meet up with the troops and give them the details of what to expect."

"I will meet you down there later, I need to gather up some sources of light before the sun goes down, just incase there's no lamps in this area."

With a salute from both parties, Ralf and Clark left. Leona returned to her task, but in her mind she couldn't help but echo Ralf's hope for the safe return of their newest teammate.

---

"It looks like we're about to get some more guests." The voice said, "Of course, I can't allow them to get any information about what we've been doing, so I have no choice but to initialize the self-destruct sequence."

"I should have known that this was going to happen." Kyo muttered.

"I don't remember anyone saying anything about this place having a self-destruct mechanism…" Irena said.

"You may not have, but I certainly did know about it. It's actually convenient for me, since I can take care of the pest that are filing into this area as we speak, and I can also deal with all of you. Two birds, one stone."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Maxima, we're getting out of here." K' couldn't take this anymore, and Kyo's presence was making him even more uneasy for some reason.

"Even if you can get out in time, you still have to deal with the armed men that Heidern sent who are running throughout the place. That goes for all of you. K', Maxima, Kyo, and the others in this room, rest assured we will meet again, if you manage to survive, that is. We are the NEST Cartel. Remember that."

It was after the voice finally went silent that the room started to shake. K' and Maxima immediately made a break for it, while the others stood there confused.

"Come on, I think I know the way out of here!" Kyo shouted, "We need to get moving or we'll be crushed!"

Benimaru and Shingo followed him out of there, leaving the SSC, Irena and Krizalid. The lone girl in the group helped her boss get to his feet. "This structure is weakened too much for us to be here anymore. Let's o, we'll take the elevator up."

"Here, let me help you with that," Zyon assisted her with the task of assisting Krizalid.

"Thanks Zyon."

"Why are…you helping me…after what I did?" Krizalid was getting weaker by the moment.

"I owe it to her. And like I said, I had worse things done to me." Zyon smiled, "It was fun fighting you. At the least, I don't feel like a failure for losing against you."

The SSC went to the elevator, where Irena tried to get it to start moving

"Isn't it too dangerous to be using that when the place is crumbling?" Raven suddenly realized, "What if it shuts down on the way up? We'll be done for!"

Irena thought about it for a second. "You're right," She sighed, "It's too risky to go up that way. Thankfully I know about every secret exit that's built in this place. We should be able to get out without being shot at, but we have to be quick about it."

Forced to turn around, they started to hurry down the long corridor to find an exit.

"Irena…I think you should let me go." Krizalid coughed. He knew his time was running out.

Irena wasn't going to hear a word of it. "Stop talking nonsense. Come on, we're going to get out of here and get you some help."

"No. I…don't think I'll be able to make it. The injury is too severe….you should just leave me here." Krizalid forcibly removed himself from the grips of Zyon and Irena and slid down the wall.

"Sir, don't do this to yourself! I need you to get up…" Irena knelt down next to him.

"Don't argue with me, Irena." Krizalid looked at her intently, "Just do as I tell you. I'm not going drag you down this road with me."

"But…"

"Please, do this as a favor…for me. If you're safe, at least I would have done one thing right today."

Irena was on the brink of bursting into tears at that point. "Sir…I don't know what I can do…"

Krizalid placed a hand on her cheek. "This is for the best. For the sake of the cartel, I need you to stay alive."

Realization slowly crept in. Krizalid was right; the fact that he had survived for this long with his injuries was a miracle on his own. Now she needed to focus on herself and her team getting out of here in one piece.

"Okay, sir." Irena wiped her eyes, "I won't forget this." She quickly hugged him before standing back up. "Okay guys, let's keep going."

The SSC, not wanting to get involved, moved along without her. Before Irena had a chance to follow them, she had the feeling that someone else was there.

"What are you doing here?" Irena said in a low voice.

"You know why I'm here." Whip came out of a corner. "What happened to Krizalid?"

"He's injured. Badly. Seeing you is the last thing he wants…"

"Just let me talk to him. He's already dying, right? There's no reason for me to do anything to him anymore."

Irena relented. The look Krizalid gave her indicated that he wanted to hear what Whip has to say, and all she could do is obey his wishes.

"Fine. Do as you wish." Irena turned around, "Just go easy on him; he's been through enough now."

She started to run and catch up with her friends. As soon as Whip was sure that she was gone, she walked towards Krizalid.

"….I didn't…..think we'd meet….like this." Krizalid hoped that he could last long enough to hear her.

"Me neither, Krizalid." She knelt down, "Anyway, I know what you want to ask me, so go ahead and say it while you can."

"The only thing I wanted to know is why did you leave, sister? Why did you quit the cartel so unexpectedly?"

Whip let out a long sigh. "I'm not your sister."

The frown on his face certainly told her that he didn't believe it. "What? Quit talking nonsense."

"I'm dead serious. I am NOT your sister…"

"But how could that be?"

"Our relationship was nothing but memories that got implanted in you. It was all fabricated."

"But…"

"Think about it…you don't have any real memories about your parents? _Our_ parents? Do you?"

"I….I guess you're right." Krizalid coughed a bit of blood. "But our memories of us…who could have done this?"

"It's K'."

"K'? But….He's my….clone…"

"No….you have it twisted, as usual." Whip gave his head a light smack, "Think about it a little harder, idiot."

"…The only way that could be true is if…" The realization struck him. "That can't be…Then that would mean...."

"Bingo. You're are K's clone, not the other way around."

"….."

"Don't act that way. After all, I was fooled by this too; that was what prompted me to leave. Among other things, of course."

"K'…I guess he _was_ the superior one after all." Krizalid vision started to blur a bit. "All of these memories…everything I've done for you….it was meaningless…."

"It wasn't meaningless, Krizalid. It was something I had to do for myself." Whip placed a hand over his heart, "Part of me hates you, yes. But everything that has happened between us...it still meant a lot to me. And for that, I thank you."

Krizalid gave her a weak smile. "I'm glad….at the very least, are you happy with your new surroundings?"

"Yes, I am happy…"

"Then I am at peace…" His words got lower, "One more thing before….I go…"

"What is it?"

"Tell the team she…_we _made….that I want them…to protect…her…."

"I will."

Krizalid eyes slowly closed. Whip felt his heartbeat disappear under her hand. She sighed, "Rest in peace, my imaginary brother. I wont forget you…."

"What a heartwarming scene."

Whip instantly stood up and pointed her gun at the source of the noise. For what seemed like déjà vu, she was aiming right at Zyon.

"You know, one of these days I'm going to end up shooting you." She sighed, putting the gun away, "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to check up on you, sweetheart." Zyon smiled, "Though to be fair, I should be asking you that."

"We _were_ investigating this place before it started crumbling." Whip said, "I followed you to try and get you and your friends out of here."

"And let me guess, you got lost?"

"Shut up."

Zyon just laughed, "So, You used to work for him?"

"Yes, but I don't want to talk about it. It's in the past now." It was about that time that she noticed Zyon's current condition. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I was scorched by your 'imaginary brother'." He rubbed his arm, "It's nothing to be worried about."

"It _is_! You need medical attention, and I don't have a first aid kit."

"Let's not worry about that right now. We need to get out of here." Zyon turned around and started running, "Follow me, I think I remember the way we Irena told us to go."

"You 'think', huh?" Whip had no choice but to follow him. "Listen, Zyon. I'm sorry about what happened during our fight."

"Sorry? Why?"

"I guess I got a little bit incensed by your arrogant attitude during the fight, and I went a little overboard…"

"That's okay." Zyon assured her. "It's just a fight. People get a little too into it sometimes, I know I do."

"But I did learn one thing, though."

"What's that?"

Whip gave him a small smile. "Being electrocuted really, really hurts."

Zyon laughed again.

They were making good time as they continued their journey, though Zyon couldn't run at full speed due to his injury. But soon there was a giant booming noise behind them. Looking back, they saw that part of the ceiling had collapsed behind them.

"Uh-oh…" Zyon was a little nervous. "I guess this building is starting to crumble from all the stress it suffered."

"We will never get out of there in time at this rate…" Zyon stretched a bit, "But…"

"But what? Do you have a plan?" Zyon unexpectedly scooped Whip up into his arms. "What the hell?"

"Don't worry, this is for your own benefit." He said. "I'm going to show you something that I rarely ever do…"

Zyon's hair once again changed color, turning a stark white. But there wasn't any flames or electricity to go along with it. What did happen was he got a respite from the pain that came from his injuries, albeit temporary.

"Okay, hold on tight…"

Whip was confused and embarrassed to be in such a position. _"I look like a helpless little girl…"_ She though, but she wrapped her arms around his neck anyway.

With a sudden burst of speed, Zyon started to run way faster then he had in a long time..

---

"Where in the hell did Zyon run off to?"

The rest of the SSC were dashing through the tunnels quickly. So far they hadn't encountered any soldiers, but there was always still the possibility. Despite that, they were close to getting out.

"I'm sure that he went back for her for some reason…" Irena sighed. "But still, I know that he'll meet up with us eventually."

"Maybe I should go back for him…" Xion said

Irena was about to assert her disagreement when she saw two men armed with guns heading towards them.

"Stop right there!" one person said, "Who are you?"

"Wait! We were told that there was civilians present in these tunnels. Don't make any rash decisions. They don't look like they're a threat." Another one said. They both proceeded to put their guns away.

"Okay, just come with us peacefully and we'll lead you out of here."

Irena assessed the risks of coming along with soldiers. If they found out that she was a part of this plan, she would be arrested on the spot. If that happens, then there was a chance that the SSC would be taken in along with her. There was no way she would have that happen.

"Don't do anything rash…." Irena said quietly. "Let me handle this one. I owe you."

Taking advantage of the two men's relaxed state, she jumped up and kicked on of them right in the face, snapping his head back. The other man watched in shock as his teammate fell like a rock.

"Forgive me for this…" Irena grabbed the other man by the wrist and twisted it around so that his arm was behind him, before giving him a sharp elbow to the shoulder, dislocating it. Finally, he knelt him over and jammed her knee right into his sternum.

The rest of the SSC looked on in amazement as she disposed of the two soldiers.

"Uh…okay…" Raven scratched his head, "So you have some fighting ability?"

"Of course. One can't really survive in this organization for as long as I have if you don't know how to fight." Irena gave them a quick smile, "I told you I had some secrets."

The sounds of rapid footsteps gave everyone a reason to turn around. Expecting some more soldiers, instead they got Zyon carrying a girl, running at full speed towards them.

Upon seeing their faces, the teen slid to a stop. After putting Whip back to her feet, he struggled to catch his breath.

"Zyon, did you_ run_ the whole way here?" Xion asked.

"Not….all the….way..." His friend said between pants. "Just….three…fourths…"

"That's not much better, idiot."

"Glad to see you back, Zyon, but we need to get out of here before these guys call for backup."

Whip looked down on the fallen men, "Are those people from our unit?" She said incredulously, "Irena, did you do this?"

"We don't have time for questions right now, we need to keep going."

Nobody needed her to say that twice. Everyone continued their journey with no real further interruption. With Irena's help, they made it outside.

"Awfully anticlimactic, don't you think?" Krysten said as they came out of the tunnel, which took them out of the side of the building."Isn't the routine usually that you make it out of a crumbling building 3 seconds before everything collapses?"

"You watch too many action movies, my friend." Zyon sat on the ground, exhausted. "Though I'll admit, it seemed pretty strange. Where are we at?"

"On the other side of the underground base, I suppose." Irena replied. "But it's still a bit dangerous. There's a path over there that'll take us up to higher ground."

They all walked down the path which climbed up a hill and led them to what seemed to be an edge of a cliff. When they finally reached safe ground, everyone sighed in relief.

"It's finally over."

"Not yet. I wonder how this building is going to collapse." Irena stared down to the building, which from the outside, still looked perfectly fine. "Odd, I guess only the tunnels was destroyed then."

"I guess I'll call Leona to let her know I'm alright." Whip grabbed her personal radio. "Come in…Leona, are you there?"

"Whip, is that you?" Leona's voice came through the speaker. "Have you gotten yourself out?"

"Yes ma'am. I have apprehended the guys and made it out safely. We're right on top of an cliff that overlooks the surrounding area. What has been happening during the time I went down there?"

"Ralf and Clark made it back out, thankfully." Leona continued, "We had sent a team of men to search the underground area for anything relating to the sponsor of this tournament, but all we got so far is two suspicious men that supposedly was working for it. They did a number on them and disappeared. My guess is that they got out and disappeared somewhere in a forested region."

"_I guess I'll have to wait a while longer to talk to him."_ She thought.

"We also have acquired one Benimaru Nikaido and Shingo Yabuki." Leona continued, "Ralf managed to lead them to safety just a few moments ago. Surprisingly, Kyo Kusanagi is with them as well."

"What?!"

"He apparently wanted to know what was going on as well. In fact, he seems to know more about this organization than we do. For now, we will gather our forces and meet you up there. Is there anyone that needs medical attention?"

Whip looked at Zyon, who was on his back, seemingly too tired and injured to even move. "At least one person…"

"We'll bring some first aid as well. Be there shortly. Over and out."

Whip shook her head as she put the radio back in it's compartment. She opted not to mention Irena and what went on for the moment. The girl needed her chance to be happy, and she certainly wouldn't get it being thrown in jail.

"LOOK!" Irena suddenly shouted, "Everything is starting to collapse!"

Everyone else instantly jumped up and went towards the edge of the cliff to watch the spectacle. The tunnels were the only form of support that the building had, so when it got destroyed, the weight of the buildings surrounding it was too much, and it started to buckle under its own weight. It was quite the sight to see, especially when the small explosions and flames started to appear. It was almost as if it was the big finale to signal the end of the journey that was KOF.

Irena stared at the now burning ruins; to her, all they were was a representation for how badly today ended up turning out. That's when she started to cry.

----

The rest of the Ikaris arrived about ten minutes later. As Whip requested, they immediately had medical teams work on fixing up Zyon and Raven. While the latter's injury wasn't as severe as first thought, Zyon still needed some treatment, mostly just burn treatment (though the burns weren't that severe, and Zyon kept stating that they'll be gone in a few days).

During that time the SSC didn't really do much: Xion wandered around the area aimlessly as he waited for his friend to get done so they could start the three hour drive back to the city, Krysten was listening to Ralf and Clark argue about their past battles, and Irena was sitting near the edge of the cliff, staring at the now-smoking wreck that was point 70599. Everyone else had decided that she needed to be left alone for a while.

Zyon sat inside one of the trucks, just about done with his treatment. Even though he didn't show it, he was still in a little bit of pain, but not as much as he was after the battle. He was ready to leave and tell the others that he was ready to go, that was until Whip walked into the truck.

"So, how are you doing?" She inquired, taking note of Zyon's taped up arms.

"I'm probably going to be taking painkillers for a day or so, but other than that, I'm doing okay." Zyon was too tired to antagonize her.

"You know, you really helped me out back there, even if it was a little scary." Whip sat next to him, "What was that all about? Is that some other new form you haven't told me about?"

"It's not really a 'form' like the others. What you saw was the product of a mistake I made a long time ago. At this point, that's all I'll say about it."

"I suppose that mistakes can benefit us sometimes. Are you sure that was such a bad thing?"

"Not bad, but it brings up a lot of harsh memories for me, so I try not to dwell on it."

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine." Whip looked at him with pleading eyes "Zyon…Do you think you can keep what happened between me and Krizalid a secret?".

"I don't see any reason that I shouldn't. All you did is just talk to him, right?"

"It's not as simple as that. I have stuff that I don't want to reveal to the squad at this moment." She said, "My past isn't all that pleasant, unfortunately."

"You're preaching to the choir, sweetheart." Zyon stood up, "Even if you have a lousy background, you're still a nice girl, you know that? You must have a lot of friends, right?"

"Not really…" Whip eyes were downcast, "Other than Leona, Ralf and Clark, I don't really have much in the way of friends."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore, because now you have me!"

"Wait, what? You'll be my friend just like that?"

"Yep. If that is what you want, of course."

Whip tried her best not to blush. This was the first time that anyone had ever wanted her friendship. She wasn't exactly the most social person around, and still had a hard time expressing herself.

"No…don't take it the wrong way, I would like to be your friend too…" She said shyly, "It's just that I'm not used to something like this happening to me. Making friends is still somewhat of a foreign thing in my mind."

"I know it's sudden, but I wouldn't be doing this if I thought it wouldn't work out. Besides, wouldn't you want someone you can talk to who's _normal_?"

A short laugh escaped from the brown-haired girl's mouth. "You're right. Thank you for thinking highly of me."

"No problem, Muchiko…"

"What did you call me?"

"Muchiko. It's Japanese for Whip-girl, you know?" Zyon smirked. Whip just smacked her forehead.

"It's bad enough that Ralf is calling me 'Whippy', but you're calling me that now?" She playfully punched him in the arm, "Some friend you are."

"I just thought it sounded cute, and I know that you're tired of me calling you 'sweetheart' all of the time…"

"Well, that IS true…"

"Anyway, I think I'll let the others know I'm done so we can get going already. It's a long drive back to the city." Zyon stood up to leave when he felt the familiar tug of her weapon on his arm. Whip gently tugged him back towards her.

"Before he died, Krizalid told me that he wanted you and your team to protect Irena. For her sake and mine, could you do that for her?"

"Don't worry, we'll always support her no matter what. She's one of us, after all."

"One more thing…"

Expecting for her to say something else, Zyon was surprised when instead got a faint kiss on the cheek. Even though he was usually adept to being kissed, he still couldn't help but turn a bit red.

"I owe you that much." Whip let him go and gave him a friendly push out of the truck.

Zyon smiled to himself. "This is going to be a interesting relationship…"

---

"Hey Irena!" Raven shouted as he approached her, "Zyon's out of the medical truck, so we should get going before they start asking questions…."

Irena was still sitting there, staring off into the distance. She had been acting funny since they got out of the base; she was off by herself, and he assumed that she wanted to be left alone for the moment. Now, he thought that the best thing he could do was talk to her.

"You've been staring at that thing for about an hour…" Raven stood next to her, "Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll be fine." Irena wiped her eyes. "I'm just a little upset…"

"Listen, Irena. I guess we kinda screwed your plans up when we jumped in out of nowhere but…"

"No, it's not your fault. I suppose that our plan was doomed to failure from the start. This is KOF, after all." She shrugged, "The only thing I can do is honor my boss' words. I have to return to the cartel and work things out from there."

"Are you sure? Weren't they trying to kill you?"

"You know, I thought about that. While you were getting your wounds taped up, I called the HQ, and they said that there wasn't any self-destruct mechanism installed in the base. I knew something was fishy about that mysterious voice." She glowered, "Anyway, they said that the most likely scenario is that someone put it in without our knowledge. So either some other syndicate is trying to undo ours or we might have a traitor on our hands. So you don't have to worry about me for now."

"That's good to know. You're our friend, so obviously we want you to be safe."

"So, you still want to be friends even though I basically told you that we were trying to take over the world?"

"Heh, of course. You really think you being a part of a shady criminal organization is going to change anything?"

"You mean it shouldn't?"

"No. You're a part of this group too. Without you, there would be no SSC." Raven helped her up. "You'll always be one of us no matter what happens."

"Thank you, Raven." She gave him the sweetest smile she possibly could, "I'll appreciate this more than you'll ever know. Now then, we should get ready to leave, but what about Benimaru and the others?"

"I overheard those Ikari guys say that they'll provide them with a way back home." Raven answered, "They offered us the same thing, but we already have plane tickets for us to leave tomorrow."

"In that case, let's get going. It's already getting dark out and I don't want to be driving too late."

And so, the SSC got together and got ready to leave. Thankfully, the car that they had used to get here was still intact (since they parked far away from the building) so they would have no problem with transportation. Before they left, however, the Ikaris had one last thing to tell them.

"You know, we kinda doubted you for a bit…" Ralf said, "But you certainly proved yourself. You have earned our respect."

"It should be stated though, the next time we meet, the situation will most assuredly be different." Leona added, though it was directed towards Raven more than anyone. "Despite that, we wish you well on your trip back home."

"Okay…Thanks, I guess." Raven said nervously. Leona straightforwardness scared him a little sometimes.

"I guess this is goodbye. Again." Irena gave her a smile, "But of course, don't think that this will change anything."

"Still?" Whip shook her head. "Can't you put it behind you for now?"

"Maybe…" She said in a quiet tone. "Loyalty to the cartel comes first, you know that."

"Yeah, I know." "He said he wanted you to be happy…"

"I know. He told me that many times. And for his sake, I promise that I will." Irena reached for her face and pinched her on the cheek.

"See you soon, Seira." She walked away to join the others. They all started to walk away, Zyon giving a quick wave to Whip before they went down the hill.

"_Maybe someday you'll understand…"_ Whip rubbed the side of her face. _"But I until then all I can do is hope that you will be okay."_

---

Once they finally reached their car, the SSC was greeted by one last person. Kyo Kusanagi.

"So you are the Shin Sekai Chitsujo? You certainly are very impressive from what I have seen."

"You've seen us fight?"

"I was over there when you fought Terry and the others." Kyo bragged, "Of course, the things was going on meant I had to keep a low profile, but I watched every minute of that fight. You almost had Terry Bogard beat."

"Yeah, I kinda blew it at the end, though."

"But you came close, that what matters. I don't think anyone will ever doubt your potential ever again." Kyo smiled.

"Thanks Kyo, that's just what we wanted to prove." Raven felt happy after hearing those words. He was right; The SSC had made a mark of sorts that they certainly wouldn't be labeled a 'flash in the pan' team any time soon.

"So what about you? Are you going back home?" Krysten asked.

Kyo face fell. "No, unfortunately. As much as I wish I could, as long as those scumbags from NESTS are still around, I can't risk being seen in public. So I will do all I can to bring them down."

"Just what we need, more people fighting against us." Irena rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't peruse this any further. Your role in our plan has been over for a long time."

"Be that as it may, I will get my revenge. You have my word." Kyo started to leave. "Tell your higher-ups that sooner or later, they will be burned." Kyo disappeared into the night.

"If he knew that you worked for the people who cloned him, why hasn't he questioned you?" Krysten said as they all got in the car.

"I don't know. I guess he figured that I wouldn't provide him with any real answers." Irena sat in the driver's seat. "Where's the keys?"

"Well, here's the thing," Zyon used his electricity to start the car. "We sort of hotwired this car that we found abandoned somewhere in town to get here."

"Wow…You were pretty desperate to get here, weren't you?" Irena chuckled.

As the car sped down the road, the SSC decided to make the most of their time left with Irena. It was a wild ride, but as much as they enjoyed it, part of them couldn't help but be delighted that things would be back to normal by tomorrow…

---

Shikkoku: One. Last. Chapter.

One more chapter and I'll be done with this story that took me 2 years and 2 months to write. Go me. Surprisingly, this was quite longer than I had anticipated, and pretty easy to write compared to the horrific journey that was Chapter 12. Still, I can't help but think that I might have missed something…oh well, I usually go back and edit old chapters anyway. Thank you Flaming Arsenal for reviewing once again, by the way.

_Notes:_

_I really wanted to give Krizalid a better death scene than 'he gets crushed by a rock', so I made him die from the injuries he suffered, but had him last a bit longer. The whole conversation with Whip had been planned at the beginning, but I made her less harsh than she was in the original game._

_If your wondering what Zyon did, all I can say is that he has one more unique thing about him. What you saw was Zyon reluctantly using a bit of a mysterious 'power' to get him and Whip out of harms way. I can't really describe it to you without spoiling anything, but Act 2 will definitely give you a better idea of it. Don't worry, it's nothing too powerful, I swear._

I hope you enjoyed this. The last chapter will be out within a week. I promise. Review if you can.

Next Chapter: The tournament is over. After a unforgettable experience, the Shin Sekai Chitsujo say their goodbyes to their new friend and make their way back to Japan, not knowing how much their presence in the tournament has shaped things yet to come….

Until next time, Sayonara.


	14. Over as Fast as it Started…

Disclaimer: SNKPlaymore are the sole proprietor of KOF and anything connected to it. I claim ownership of any OCs to this work of fiction.

Shikkoku: Two simple words: Last. Chapter.

---

KOF: New Blood - Act 1

Final Chapter: Over as Fast as it Started…

---

"Yo, Krysten. We're going to be late." Raven shook his brother awake.

"What? No, give me 5 more hours…" Krysten mumbled in his sleep, which forced Raven to kick him out of bed. "Ow!"

"We are going to miss our plane if you don't get your lazy ass up." He pulled his brother up. "Zyon, Xion and Irena are already packing up."

After they have gotten back to town from what was a very long day, the SSC and Irena got something to eat and immediately went to their rooms and passed out on their respective beds. They were exhausted, and all they wanted to do was sleep. Now with that out of the way, the SSC were preparing to go back home at last.

"Hey, hurry up in there!" Zyon voice came through the door, "If you want to have some breakfast before we leave, you better get moving."

"Yeah yeah! Shut up already!" Raven shouted back, "We'll be out in a moment!"

"I can't believe that only a few days ago we were starting this tournament, and now it's over." Krysten yawned, "It went by so quickly…"

"Maybe to you, but to me it seems like we've been traveling around forever. Hopefully next year they'll hold the entire thing in one place."

"If we're so fortunate to make it in…"

"After what we did yesterday? I doubt it if we _didn't_ get invited next year."

---

A half an hour later, the SSC left the hotel, feeling refreshed after a decent night's sleep. Their plane wasn't leaving for a few hours, so they had time to get a quick breakfast in before they had to go to the airport. But there was someone missing…

"Where's Zyon?" Krysten asked.

"I don't know. He said he'll be back in a few minutes, though." Irena answered.

Zyon did come back a few minutes later. "Were did you go?" Irena asked.

He shook his head. "I'll tell you later, okay?"

"Fine. Let's find someplace to eat before it you leave. It's on me."

While Irena was asking someone for directions to the nearest restaurant, Zyon got the rest of the team together

"What is it, Zyon?" Xion asked.

"While you were getting ready, I snuck out to the mall got Irena a nice little gift. You know, as a thank-you present of sorts."

"Well that was nice of you, I guess. How much did it cost?"

"Eh…er….a few hundred something…"

Everyone was shocked. "What? How did you get that much money?"

"From some stuff I had saved up in the bank that Tera wired to me, of course. I'm not _that_ poor, you know."

"I understand that, but your job doesn't pay enough to be throwing money around like that!" Xion warned, "Don't you remember that you want to go to college after you graduate?"

"Don't worry. I can compensate. One of the benefits of having a affluent friend." Zyon shook him a bit, "Just don't tell her, okay? I want it to be a surprise…"

---

After breakfast, it was time for the SSC to go home. They arrived at the airport an hour early, so they had no choice but to sit at the gate and wait. Zyon was talking to his sister on the phone, who, with no surprise, was incredibly relieved to hear his voice, while the others did various things.

"Hey, Irena? I have something to ask you…." Raven said.

"Sure, what is it?"

"That day at the mall, when we first met you, was that planned, or was our encounter just one big happy accident?"

"To be honest, it was always my intention to find you and invite you to fight in the tournament, but during that day, I wasn't really looking for you at that time. It just so happened that we were in the same place. I guess some could say our encounter was destined to happen, but I doubt that."

"The only destiny is the one you make yourself.'"

"That was deep. Who said that to you?"

"….I don't know. It's something that sticks in my head but I can't seem to pinpoint a source of that. It's a fragmented memory, I guess."

"Is it because of the amnesia?"

"Probably. I guess that it probably comes from a book, or some person, but I don't really care much about it." He noticed Irena looking at him funny, "What's wrong?"

"I just noticed how your hair is still black…It's been like that since yesterday, right?"

"Kakusei always does that. For some reason it reverts my hair back to its natural color whenever I use it." Raven rubbed his head. "It'll go back to normal after about 24 hours or so. My powers are strange like that."

Irena just smiled and tugged his hair. "I like it that way, it suits you."

An intercom announced that the plane would be arriving in about 5 minutes. Irena decided that it would be her last chance to address her team.

"Hey, everyone! Listen, there's something I want to tell all of you before you leave." Everybody turned to her. "It's been a long journey, but I'm sure you wouldn't have it any other way, right? I'm very happy to have had you as a team, guys."

"And we're happy to have had you as a representative, Irena." Zyon gave a thumbs up. "Are you going to keep contact with us?"

"I wish I could. I'm probably going to be doing damage control because of what happened, but I'll do my best to keep up with you."

"Nice. Irena, do you remember me telling you that we owed you something?" Zyon reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny object. "Well, this is it."

Irena took the object from him. It was a silver necklace with a small heart pendent attached to it. "Wow, it's lovely. I-I don't know what to say…"

"Think of it as a gift from all of us." He gave a warm grin.

"How sweet of you all to do this for me…" She gave each of the team a big hug. "You guys are the greatest. And don't worry. I have a nice surprise waiting for you back in Japan."

"Surprise?" The entire team spoke at once.

"Yep, but you'll have to wait till you get home to find out, of course!" She beamed. "Just trust me with this one; it will be most certainly worth the wait."

Finally, the airplane was ready to accept passengers and the SSC started to get on board, but Raven still needed to tell Irena something…

"Are you _sure_ that you'll be okay?" Raven placed both hands on her shoulders, "We don't want you getting hurt…"

"I'll be fine. I can defend myself, remember." She pushed his arms away, "And I do have friends at the cartel; They will make sure nothing happens, I swear."

"I hope so…"

"But don't worry about that, you need to get going." She kissed him on the cheek, causing him to turn completely red for a moment.

"Well then. Goodbye, Irena."

"Goodbye, Raven. Goodbye everyone." She waved to them as they went through the gate. She felt kind of sad to see them go, but happy that they were in good spirits. As she watched their airplane leave, however, she could only wonder how big of an effect would their presence in the tournament have for the cartel….

---

After a four hour long flight, they were finally back at home. The only one that was there to greet them, however, was Tera, who all but tackled her brother the moment he appeared out of the gate.

"Zyonii, I missed you!" She said while she squeezed him half to death.

"I missed you too, Tera." He gently pushed her off. "Have you been doing well? No people have called wondering where I was at, hopefully?"

"Nope. Everything's been cool. Kristal has been staying with me."

"We should be getting home." Raven interrupted, "I hope nobody tried to rob our house again…"

"Who would think that we would have anything of value over there?" said Krysten.

"I hope that I haven't been evicted…" Xion mumbled absentmindedly as the team picked up their bags. Along with their usual stuff was a medium sized box addressed to them.

"What is that?" Zyon picked it up and started to shake it.

"It must be that 'surprise' that Irena mentioned before we left…."

"There is a note attached to it." Tera showed the others a piece of paper with writing on it:

_This is my final gift to you for now._

_If I were you, I'd wait till you get home to open it, just to be safe, of course._

_See you next year…_

_Irena_

"That was rather cryptic." Krysten said, "What do you think it is?"

"Since we can't open it here, let's go to our place and find out." Raven recommended.

The SSC took the first bus they could find and went straight to the Kirishima's residence, where they gathered around the package. Carefully, they opened the box from the top; it was filled with Styrofoam padding. Reaching into it, Raven pulled out a large brown envelope.

"_A package inside of another package…Going a little overboard, aren't we?_" He thought as he tore open the envelope. His eyes widened the second he saw the contents.

It was cash. Quite a bit of money to be exact; it wasn't an extraordinary amount, but it was more than most of them have ever seen in their lives.

"Wow, this was a surprise." Raven said, "this must be the cash prize for coming in third at the tournament. There's three more envelopes for the rest of you as well."

Zyon quickly opened his envelope. "Well Irena sure didn't disappoint us, did she?"

"Wait, they actually_** was**_ giving away money at that tournament? I thought it was all one big trick to lure us in?" Xion said. He wasn't sure about were this money came from. "Is this stuff even legal?"

"Who cares, Xio-kun? The point is that it's ours, that's all that matters." Zyon gave his friend an envelope. "Besides, we can trust her, right?"

"Yeah, I guess you are." Xion went through his portion of the cash, "So what happens to us now?"

"What do you mean? Now that the tournament is over?" Raven asked, "We go back to our normal lives, simple as that?"

"I think Xion is concerned that we might have to deal with some other things. After all, we did sort of mess up the plans of a criminal organization. I don't think they'll just overlook that."

"I have a feeling that whoever they are has more pressing concerns to deal with than just us, after all." Zyon retorted, "But if they do decide to mess with us, then they'll have a fight in their hands."

"Besides, Irena would probably warn us ahead of time anyway." Raven added, "Either way, there's no reason to worry. KOF is over, and for the moment, so is the Shin Sekai Chitsujo. Now we are just Raven, Krysten, Xion and Zyon…."

"Good choice of words there, Raven." Zyon said. "It's still pretty early, what do you say we go somewhere and celebrate?"

"Hey, I know your school is out for summer break, but ours still has classes tomorrow."

"I know, but you not telling me you are going to worry about school the day after you get home from a grueling tournament, are you?"

"Heh, you're right. I guess I can skip one more day. So, where do you suppose we should go?"

"To my job of course. I think my boss would be willing to let us eat there on the house for once."

"If she doesn't, you're going to have to pay for it…" Xion reminded. "Are you going to cook for us?"

"I might if you're nice enough." Zyon smirked, "But probably not. I just got back, I'm not going to do work right now."

"In that case, let's not waste time arguing." Raven stretched a bit as he got up off his seat, "I'm starving after that trip. It's been a tough journey, but we earned this. Let's go crazy, alright?"

Everyone gave a sound of enthusiasm as they left the house. The sense of normalcy was a welcome relief after what seemed like a never-ending battle, but they wouldn't forget the feeling that being in the heat of battle gave them. The Shin Sekai Chitsujo: Raven Kirishima, Krysten Kirishima, Zyon Kasanari and Xion Shinlon, may not have won, but they achieved the main goal for their purpose; to prove to themselves and to everyone else that they could hang in there with the best of them. To them, that was the most they ever could have wanted. The SSC had made their mark, and very soon, the effects of doing so will be made prevalent to them.

This story has not yet come to an end….

_---_

*Confetti falls from the sky as Shikkoku raises his hands in triumph*

Shikkoku: IT'S DONE! I've finished my first story on this site! *Cheers* Not only that, I kept my promise of focusing primarily on this story as well, even though it took waaaaayyyy longer than I had originally planned and I blew almost my entire summer break just working on one chapter, but it was still worth it. Now that it's done, I can go back to working on my neglected stories that desperately needs updating.

_Notes:_

_I really want to thank all of you for reading this and sticking with this for so long (if you did). I've always wanted to post a story on this site, so finishing this is a very important achievement to me. Of course, there are parts of the story that still needs some improving here and there, and I'll try to get to it later, but for now I really want to focus on other stuff…_

_As stated, the next story in this saga will be a bridge between the two acts. It will expand on the SSC's characters a bit more and add a few more OCs to the cast. That's right, this is going to be an OC heavy saga; if that's not your thing, then you should probably…no, __**definitely**__ avoid the rest of the story. That's not to say that the main cast is going to be shoved aside of course (some of them have pretty big roles). I'll do my best to balance the two out, but OCs will be the primary focus._

_Anyway, the next story will be short. Probably 6 or 7 chapters, really light on action (at least I think it will be) and heavy on needless plot exposition. Of course, I'll still post a small epilogue to give you a taste of what to expect, but it'll be a while before the story is posted._

_As for the other stories? Two chapters of TnK and two chapters of KT:K are what's coming up. And there's still the matter of THE FALLEN…First chapter's pretty much done, just need to tweak some things before I post it. And that's just the tip of the iceberg._

So that's it. Review or PM if you want to. Heh, I'm so used to posting the Next Chapter preview at the end of every chapter that I don't know what else to say….

For everyone out there, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this story, thanks to those who reviewed, and until we meet again, Sayonara.


	15. Consequences

Disclaimer: I do not own King of Fighters or anything correlated to that series. The original characters belong to me, and if you ask me, I'll gladly consider letting you borrow them for a bit.

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King of Fighters: New Blood

Epilogue: Consequences

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_6 months later…_

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"Oh, what the hell…"

Haru Tsuyomi stared blankly at the long mission assignment that was waiting for him on his bed when he returned to his quarters. For about three minutes, he stood at the middle of his quarters, reading and re-reading the briefing to make sure he had everything in order.

_This is an odd time to be asking us to perform such a mission…_ He said to himself as he left the room. _I assumed that we had a lot of more high-priority issues that still needed working on._

He grabbed the envelope that the briefing arrived in and dumped the contents on his bed. Plane tickets, some newly forged ids and other important stuff had all been included with the letter. _Looks like we'll be out of this place for a while. Can't really say that it's a bad thing, though._

"Yo, Haru." Luka, the person who was somewhat considered a senior member of the organization, slowly walked in to his room. He scratched his head with a bandaged hand; he always seemed to have at least one part of his body wrapped up in gauze for some reason.

"So you got the new mission, I see. I bet you must be pleased."

"I guess you could say I'm half and half," Haru sorted through the items on the bed, "I haven't been on a long term mission before, so this is a new thing for me. How did Dad take it?"

"He was a little hesitant, but I convinced him that you'd be okay. Of course, he's still a little worried, though."

"As expected. Oh well," Haru placed the contents of the letter back into it's envelope. "I'm sure he'll understand. It's important work." He walked out of the room, Luka on his tail. "Everything has been screwy for the past six months, so it's up to us to try and get things straightened back up."

"Yeah, but I don't think that the mission you've received has anything to do with trying to 'straighten up' the cartel." Luka said as Haru stopped at the elevator. "Sounds like a simple undercover operation."

"Well, you never know. Nothing about what we do is 'simple'. You know that right?"

"Heh. Yeah, I suppose."

They rode the elevator down several floors before arriving at the floor where the training area. It was a bit sparse today; only a few people where actually using it.

"I have to go back to the lab." Luka said suddenly. "It's my turn to check on Sakari and see if he's feeling okay. Hopefully I'll see you off later today."

Haru merely gave him a short nod as he walked away to his station at the lab and walked towards the facility where his partner for this particular mission was currently in.

Violeta Nakahara (everyone just called her Vio), Haru's co-worker and best friend, was sitting on the bench, watching two trainees beat the hell out of each other in their form of sparring, while making the occasional quips about how poor their form was and how she could beat the both of them blindfolded. Her long purple hair was matted down from sweat. She noticed the person entering the room.

"Haru!" She said excitedly. Neither of them had seen each other in more than a week. "I haven't seen you around lately. What's up?"

"I've been looking for you." Haru said. "Are you busy right now? Something just came up that I really needed to talk to you about."

"No, I'm just about done here anyway. I want to go to the lab down the hall real quick, so you can tell me as we walk, alright?" They both left the room together."What that in your hand?"

"Thisis our newest mission." He waved the briefing in front him. "One that requires us to leave as soon as possible."

Vio groaned. "_Another_ mission? Can't they have someone else do some recon work for a change?"

"No no, this is different, Vio. We're heading for Japan."

Vio "Japan? For what?"

"According to the briefing, we are there to observe some guys that were a part of the botched plan a few months ago. Shin…Shin Sekai….Chijiuso?" Haru's Japanese has been rusty from all those years away from home.

"Chitsujo." Vio corrected, "Those guys that Irena was with; the ones that crashed the finals, remember? We're going to actually meet them? What's with that all of a sudden? They never really addressed that incident until now…"

"I'm just as mystified as you are. All things considered, when Irena finds out that we've left to see them, she's going to be pissed."

"I wouldn't worry about that. Judging from her current workload, she'll be too busy to do anything."

Haru let out a short laugh as they continued down the hallway. Vio noted the slow decrease in temperature, which meant that they were getting closer to their destination.

"Is Sakari coming with us as well?" Vio was curious about the status of their friend, who had been spending a lot of time in the lab as a test subject for the cartel's newest 'toy'.

"Nope. My father and Luka are still working out some of the kinks in Sakari's new 'system'." The last word was said with a bit of sarcasm. "I doubt he'll be able to leave this place for a while. It's just going to be you and me for the next few months…"

"That sucks. It's just no fun without him." The violet-haired girl was starting to look uneasy. "Haru, I'm having a strange feeling about this new assignment. Why are we suddenly being ordered to go on a long-term mission like this?"

"Why question it? This is practically a vacation for us." Haru tried to reassure her. "You shouldn't worry so much. We've been running ourselves ragged for months now; fix this, report that, shoot this, beat up him. With this, we have an opportunity to take it easy for a bit, while the others are making plans for next year's 'event'."

"I like the idea of going back home to Japan and chilling out on the cartel nonsense for a while, but don't you have any concerns about this?"

"Nah. I doubt it'll be anything special." Haru placed a hand on her shoulder. "Please don't worry about it. It's going to be fine."

Vio still felt a slight uncertainty about the mission, but she knew that complaining further was a futile effort. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Anyway, here we are."

They were standing in front of a glass window that gave them an inside view of the room. In what was supposed to be a laboratory, instead everything surrounding the room was covered in sheets of ice, making it look more like a freezer. In the middle of it all stood a lone girl, light blue hair slowly flowing around her thin body. Despite the freezing temperature of the room, she didn't look fazed at the least. In fact, she looked a little bored.

_Another round of testing? Don't they have better things to do then to check on her every other day? _Haru frowned at the thought. _She spends more time in there then she does outside._

The sound of Vio knocking on the glass interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, ease up on the ice over there! We can't afford to have you freezing the equipment again!"

"Vio! Haru!" The girl quickly ran up to the window at the sight of the two teens. The moment she pressed her hands against the glass, ice slowly started to form on that as well. "What are you doing here?"

"You looked bored sitting in there all day. What have they been doing to you? More tests?" Haru asked. The girl nodded in response. "Well, since no one seems to be there right now, how about you join us for some lunch?"

"They have strawberry ice cream…" Vio added, knowing that would be enough to convince the girl to come with them. She willed her powers away, her hair's color fading into a soft brown before leaving the frozen room.

"Where's Foxy and Diana?"

"They got called up to do…something. I wasn't really listening." The girl replied. "All I remember is Diana saying that they won't be back for a hour at the least."

"Eh, it doesn't matter; we'll let them know where you're at." Haru took out his cell phone when he noticed that the window on the wall had a crack in it. "Where did that come from?"

"I don't have a clue…" Vio answered, but suddenly remembered something, "I think that all of that ice that formed on the window must have added more weight than the glass could handle. We need to get out of here before…"

Haru grabbed his friends and got them out of the way just before the window shattered, sending glass and ice flying everywhere.

"…the glass breaks." The violet haired girl sighed in relief. "Thanks, Haru."

"No problem." He noticed that the girl was clutched on to him tightly, her face buried in his shirt. "Hey, everything is okay, please don't be scared." Haru attempted to soothe the frightened girl. Vio was tempted to make light of the light blush on her friends face, but opted out after the sharp look he gave her.

"…Sorry…" The brown haired girl slowly released her grip on him. She looked at the mess of broken glass and melting ice that lie on the floor before them. "Are we going to get in trouble for this?"

"Don't worry; I doubt they'll do anything rash, especially to someone as important as you." Haru mumbled. "Why don't you go on ahead to the café, while we get this worked out real quick?" The girl nodded and quickly skipped down the hallway.

"You would never assume that she's being trained to be an assassin by the way she acts around us," Vio said off-handedly. Haru just nodded; he disliked his new friend being given a title that didn't seem to suit her, but it was something that was out of their hands at the moment.

Their attention quickly turned back to the slowly growing puddle that was forming on the floor. Haru sighed as he started to dial the number for the cleaning crew.

"I think I understand what you were saying about needing to get out of this place for a while." Vio said, mostly to herself.

"Yeah, I figured you'd change your mind about it." Haru smirked. "You can be so fickle at times."

"Fuck you, Haru."

---

"Don't we have private planes that can take us to Japan?" Vio asked as she and Haru were walking towards the car lot, where their ride to the airport awaited them. "Why are we taking a public airliner?"

"All of our planes are being used in other missions." Haru answered, "Besides, we're not really that high in the rankings to receive such benefits."

"We've been working here for a _long_ time. Don't you think we should be getting some better perks by now?"

"You and I are about to embark on a long-term mission to Japan, where all we really have to do is interact with a few kids about our age and get some information about them. I think that's as a big of a perk as one could get."

"I suppose…"

"And where do you think you're going?" Luka said as he arrived on the scene. "Luka? What are you doing here?" Vio had assumed that her superior was busy with his work in the labs.

"I came to wish you guys well. I'm sorry that I couldn't get your dad to come with me, but he's busy trying to get the lab fixed up after that little incident with the Anti-K'."

It took a good five seconds for the kids to realize who Luka was referring to. "Er, yeah. You didn't act to rashly on her, did you?"

"I didn't even bother. I have enough injuries without those guardians of hers carving me up like a pumpkin." Luka coughed a bit, "Back to what I came here for, I just want you to wish you well on your mission. I'll contact you when you get to Japan to go over the specifics."

"Thanks, Luka. We'll see you soon." Haru waved as the car started to pull up. "Tell Sakari that we'll call him as soon as possible."

"I will as soon as he wakes up." Luka nodded. "Take care of yourselves. Don't slack off in your training just because I'm not here!"

"Yeah, yeah. We'll do our best." Vio gave him a quick hug before she and Haru got in the car. A few seconds later and the car slowly drove off of the lot. Luka gently let out a breath.

As Luka turned around to go back inside, a dull pain shot through his arm. Pulling up his sleeve, he noticed the growing patch of blood that was soaking into the bandages in his left arm.

"Still tending to those wounds?" An older man appeared. He looked much like a older, much more weathered version of Haru. "You certainly haven't been healing up that well, recently. Maybe you should stop accepting missions and take a break yourself."

"You know I can't do that, Kirou. Someone has to deal with these messes this organization got itself in." Luka rubbed his arm, "Anyway, if you're looking for them, they just left a minute ago."

"I know." He replied as he passed Luka. "I want to thank you for suggesting them to go on this mission. I really appreciate this."

Luka shook his head. "No need to thank me. I just thought that they needed some time away from this place."

"Indeed, they've been working themselves to death recently. But I'm a little worried: It's been so long since they've left home that I don't know how they'll deal with living in a normal society…"

Luka turned around and gave him a small smile. "They were doing good before they came to join us, I don't see how this will be any different. These aren't soldiers returning from a brutal war, these are young kids hanging around other young kids. Vio and Haru should fit in quite well."

"I certainly hope that is the case Luka." Kirou watched as his fellow scientist passed him on the way back into the building. "You know how much those two kids mean to me."

"They mean a lot to me too, Kirou. I wouldn't put them in anything I didn't think they could handle." Luka gave him a small smile, and it seemed to calm his friend down a bit. "You should go and get some sleep. I'll go check on Sakari one last time. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay...." Was the all he heard from Kirou as Luka went inside the building. As he begun his trip to the medical ward to see if his, thoughts about the organizations sudden interest in those kids went through his head.

_Shin Sekai Chitsujo… I certainly hope for their sake, they understand what they gotten themselves into._ A slightly evil smile formed on his face. _If they think that NESTS is just going to forget about what they did, then they're sadly mistaken._

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Shikkoku: There you go. Nothing much to say here, this is just a little hint of what's to come in the next story (Still without a real name, though I'll probably stick with Fated), which will be posted as soon as I update the other ones (or sooner if it gets to be too long a wait). I wanted to get this out of the way already. This is the true last chapter of a story that's been surprisingly successful.

I'll see you real soon. Sayonara!!! XD


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